PART III

DOMINICAN ACHIEVEMENTS

Education

As we have already seen, the Order of Friars Preachers was the first to
be established by the Church with an academic mission. It was
inevitable that such an order, which made science one of the formal and
essential means to the attainment of its purpose, and was recruited so
largely from the students and professors of the universities, should
itself in time exercise educational functions. Like Minerva, springing
full-armed from the head of Jupiter, the Friars Preachers emerged from
their first cloisters fully equipped to exercise the most profound
influence upon the educational trend of their times.

The high standards of education which St. Dominic had set for his
followers necessitated schools possessed of the most comprehensive
curricula and presided over by teachers whose competency could not be
questioned. It was in the pursuit of this policy that the saint sought,
whenever possible, to establish foundations in the university cities of
Europe. But the studies which might satisfy the ordinary university
student, lay and cleric, could not, of course suffice for those whose
vocation made them the formal champions of the Faith and the dreaded
antagonists of its enemies. For this reason, as we have seen, the
university courses at Paris were supplemented by lectures at the
convent which enabled the youthful Dominican thoroughly to cover the
matter
of his study and obtain a fixed and accurate knowledge of his subject.
From time to time the curriculum was expanded, until before long the
course of study at St. James rivalled that of the university itself.

It was not long before the fame of the professors at the Dominican
convent began to attract the attention of both students and professors
of the university. Many of the former abandoned the courses at the
older institutions to follow the lectures of the Friars Preachers. A
yet larger number alternated between both institutions. The growing
popularity of the Dominican school and the fame of its teachers were
not lost upon the faculty of the university hard by, and before long
the priory college received the extraordinary compliment of being
incorporated with the University of Paris, the foremost educational
institution of the Christian world. A further recognition of the
professors at St. James was expressed when Roland of Cremona, its
doctor of theology, was awarded a chair of theology at the university
in 1229. Two years later another chair was conferred upon John of St.
Giles, also one of the professors at the Dominican school. Thus the
Friars Preachers enjoyed the unique distinction not only of being the
first religious Order to be represented in the faculty of the
university, but of being the only one to possess two chairs in that
illustrious body. So it happened that while the sons of St. Dominic
came to Paris to learn, they remained to teach.

The school at Paris represented the highest class of educational
institutions among the Dominicans. Similar convents of higher studies
were established at Oxford, Cologne, Montpellier and Bologna in
1248; and at Florence, Genoa, Toulouse, Barcelona and Salamanca at the
end of the century. But besides these schools of the highest order
there were two other grades of educational establishments in use among
the Friars Preachers. The first of these were the simple priories in
which only Scripture and theology were taught. These were for the use
of students who were disqualified from aspiring to an academic career
or the apostolate of preaching. But in these, as well as in the two
higher grades of schools, there were doctors of theology, as prescribed
by the Constitution. The schools of the middle class -- Studia
Solemnia -- corresponded to our modern normal schools and possessed
an elaborate faculty and a more comprehensive curriculum. All of these
schools were open to the public and were freely attended by secular as
well as Dominican students. Over all these schools the Order exercised
a most careful supervision. In the beginning the professors were all
appointed by the general chapters of the Order. Each year an official
supervisor, called "visitor," carefully examined these institutions of
learning and reported to the Master General on their efficiency and
respective needs.

Among the decrees formulated at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) which
St. Dominic had attended, was one commanding all archbishops to employ
a Master of Theology in their metropolitan churches for the better
education of candidates for the priesthood. It is significant, however,
that the archbishops who possessed Dominican priories in their sees
felt themselves dispensed from carrying out this enactment of the
council; for every such priory
was a seminary possessing an elaborate course of studies, available to
secular as well as religious students. Even when, some time later, they
were obliged to obey literally the mandate of the council and establish
their own metropolitan schools of ecclesiastical science, almost
invariably they invited Dominicans to fill the chairs of Scripture and
theology. So it was at Lyons for three hundred years. So it was at
Toulouse, Bordeaux, Tortosa, Valencia, Urgel and Milan.

When a university was established in a city in which a Dominican house
already existed, no provision was made in its pontifical charter for a
theological faculty. It was understood that the neighboring convent of
the Friars Preachers would supply the place of a school of theology.
And when the growth of these institutions made it desirable that they
should possess a theological faculty affiliated with the university,
this need was met by the incorporation of the Dominican school with the
university. This practice, begun in the closing years of the
fourteenth, continued till the early part of the sixteenth century.

In this manner the Order began to exercise a profound influence, not
merely upon the theological thought of the times but upon the entire
intellectual life of the age. Indeed, it can be truthfully said that by
1260 the Dominicans had taken possession of the universities of Europe.
As we have seen, they filled two chairs at Paris. John of St. Giles
successively held the chair of theology in no fewer than four
universities. Oxford and Bologna, which had given so freely of their
students to swell the ranks of the Order, were soon rewarded for their generosity by receiving back from
the Dominican Order some of their most renowned professors. Side by
side with the universities of Orleans, Toulouse and Montpellier, their
schools sprang up and flourished. It may be said that they practically
created the University of Dublin. Their influence was supreme at
Oxford, Paris and Bologna. Of the Dominicans at these institutions a
modern writer has said: "They did more than any other teachers to give
the knowledge taught in them its distinctive form."

The older religious Orders generously recognized the preeminence of the
Friars Preachers in the domain of ecclesiastical science and sought
their assistance to enable them to participate in the intellectual life
of the thirteenth century. The Cistercians employed Dominican Masters
of Theology to preside over the theological schools of all their
abbeys. Many of the other religious orders did likewise.

But perhaps the highest tribute paid to the educational efficiency of
the Dominicans in the fourteenth century was their selection by the
Roman pontiffs themselves to constitute the theological faculties of
their Roman schools. In 1305 Clement V appointed a Dominican to preside
over the theological school of the papal court at Avignon. It is not
without reason, therefore, that Dr. O'Leary, the Protestant biographer
of St. Dominic, says: "It is worth while observing that the Dominicans
were the first to undertake the regular theological training of the
clergy." In their own priories and in the schools of other orders, in
metropolitan seminaries and university halls, the Friars Preachers reorganized the whole system of
ecclesiastical studies of the thirteenth century, expanding their scope
and enhancing their efficiency by means of a pedagogical system which
placed them on a solid and scientific basis. When we consider the vast
number of these educational institutions controlled by the Order of
Preachers, we can readily understand their influence on the age and
their primacy among the educational institutions of the thirteenth
century. It was, therefore, no empty compliment to ascribe to St.
Dominic the honor of being the first minister of education in Europe.

As we have already seen, ecclesiastics took no part in the teaching or
study of the liberal arts and natural sciences in the time of St.
Dominic. The Friars Preachers, however, saw that in these studies,
conducted under proper auspices, there were vast possibilities for the
defence of the Faith against the assaults of the rationalists. But it
would have been imprudent boldly to run counter to the usage of the
times by abruptly throwing open their lecture halls to the study of the
proscribed sciences. Consequently, they aimed at a gradual introduction
of these subjects to the student body. The study of the liberal arts
was first permitted to individuals, and some time later, in 1250, their
place in the Dominican curriculum was firmly established.

In 1260 a yet bolder step was taken in the introduction of the natural
sciences to the attention of the religious students. By the beginning
of the fourteenth century the moral sciences had so clearly established
their claim to the consideration of ecclesiastical students that the general chapter of 1315 commanded the
Masters of Students to lecture on the ethics, politics and economics of
Aristotle for the benefit of their own religious -- a privilege which
was shortly after extended to secular students. In the following
century the services of the Friars Preachers were in great demand for
the teaching of these subjects, and the chairs of philosophy in many of
the universities were filled by members of the Order.

But it was not merely as expositors of ecclesiastical subjects that the
Friars Preachers won their conspicuous place in the front rank of the
educators of the Church. Nothing in the entire realm of truth was
foreign to their interests. No opportunity was lost to establish
educational institutions in the fields in which they labored. Thus,
colleges of higher education were founded by them, such as that of St.
Gregory at Valladolid, in 1488; and the College of St. Thomas, founded
in 1515 at Seville.

To the Dominicans belongs the honor of introducing the blessings of
education into the New World of Columbus. They lost no time in
establishing universities in each of their principal American
provinces. Forty-six years after the discovery of America these
Dominican pioneers, who came not to exploit the Indian but to confer
upon him the blessings of Christian civilization, established a
university at San Domingo in the West Indies. In 1605 the Dominican
bishop of Santiago de Cuba, Juan de las Cabezas, instituted the
University of Havana. A similar institution was founded in Santa Fe de
Bogata in 1612, and in Quito in 1681. At Havana the Dominicans
established a university in 1721. The famous University of San Marcos,
in Lima, was founded by the Friars Preachers during the incumbency of
the Dominican, Jerome de Loaysa, the first bishop and archbishop of
that city. From the nearby Dominican Priory of the Rosary, also founded
by the saintly archbishop, the university drew its chief professors.
The University of St. Thomas in Manila was founded by the Order in 1645
and is still in a most flourishing condition. Affiliated with the
university are two colleges, also administered by the Order. From its
foundation till the present day the ecclesiastical faculties of the
University of Fribourg, in Switzerland, with the exception of a single
chair have been composed exclusively of members of the Order of
Preachers. The most recent of Dominican educational institutions is the
Collegio Angelico at Rome, which enjoys the character of a pontifical
college. To these may be added the famous biblical school of the French
Dominicans at Jerusalem, founded some twenty-six years ago.

In this rough sketch of the institutions of learning established and
presided over by the Dominicans is set forth in some manner the
fidelity of the Friars Preachers for seven hundred years to the cause
of Christian education and the scope and variety of their educational
interests.

Theology and Philosophy

When we consider the elaborate scheme of education evolved by St.
Dominic for his followers, the thorough manner in which it was carried
out, the
avidity with which its opportunities were seized upon, and the high
end to which they were consecrated, it will be readily understood that
the prodigies of learning who, with unfailing regularity, rose in each
succeeding generation, were not accidental to the Order's career but
the legitimate fruit of the holy founder's genius and planning. In
tracing the educational activities of the Friars Preachers we have in
large measure treated of their work, as an Order, in the fields of
theology and philosophy. In this chapter, therefore, we shall devote
ourselves to the consideration of those sons of St. Dominic who have
won imperishable renown in these departments of ecclesiastical science.

The first star to shine in the Dominican firmament was Albert the
Great, "the Universal Doctor." He was the first of the youthful Order
publicly to teach philosophy, as he was the first systematically to
apply the Aristotelian philosophy to the elucidation and defense of
theology. In 1228 he was invited to the University of Cologne to reform
its curriculum and method of teaching.

As we have already seen, the rationalistic movement, which received
such a powerful impetus from the genius and popularity of Abelard, as
well as from a widespread diffusion of the Arabian translations of the
Stagyrite, had assaulted the very citadels of theology. The
ecclesiastical authorities had employed condemnation and repression
without avail; the movement had already acquired alarming proportions.
At this critical juncture a new method of attack, as unique as it was
bold in its conception, was inaugurated by Albert. He had made a profound study of all the writings of the Philosopher, as well as of his
Arabian and Jewish commentators, and he was convinced that the trouble
lay not so much in the real teachings of Aristotle as in the
unwarranted conclusions of his interpreters, and the false readings of
his ignorant or preludiced translators. Acting upon this knowledge,
Albert purged the peripatetic philosophy of its errors, reduced it to a
system adapted to the needs of Christian apologetics, and employed it
as a weapon of defense for theology. In his hands philosophy could be
truly defined as "intellectus quaerens fidem."

The boldness of this step caused the sincere, but short-sighted,
element in the schools to gasp with amazement. Then a storm of
vituperative abuse and false accusations burst upon him. He was accused
of enthroning a pagan within the very sanctuary, and of giving him the
place of honor in the magisterium of the Church. He was spoken of in
such endearing terms as "the ape of Aristotle" and "the Aristotelian
ass." Yet it was this method which, without derogating in the least
degree from the dignity and preeminence of Catholic theology, gave the
first permanent check to the progress of rationalism and pantheism in
Europe. Their utter rout was to be accomplished by one even greater
than himself.

It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of Albert upon the
philosophical and theological thought of the thirteenth century. Among
others of his ecclesiastical writings, his contributions to ethics are
of special value. He formulated two new proofs of the existence of God,
completed the Lombard's
doctrine of reprobation, and refuted with consummate skill Aristotle's
doctrine of the eternity of the world. To him belongs the credit of
introducing a method of theological exposition which began the
disarmament of pantheism, checked rationalism, and which, in the hands
of his most illustrious pupil, was to result in the utter discomfiture
of the enemies of supernatural truth. This in itself was more than
enough to rank him with the foremost scholars of the Church; but, as we
shall see later on, his great mind studied and illuminated other than
ecclesiastical and cognate subjects.

Albert the Great was not only a prodigy of learning, but he was what is
almost as rare, a successful teacher. Knowledge and the power to impart
it to others do not always go together. But in this great Dominican
they were united in an extraordinary degree. He taught some of the
greatest intellects of the thirteenth century, among whom were Roger
Bacon, the famous Franciscan scientist, Thomas of Cantimprè and
St. Thomas of Aquin -- the last two Dominicans. But of this brilliant
triumvirate, immeasurably the greatest was the Angel of the Schools,
St. Thomas Aquinas.

It is impossible to give more than the barest outline of his varied and
priceless service to thirteenth-century thought. He found the spirit of
rationalism still aggressive, and pantheism still exercising a baneful
influence in many of the universities of Europe. It was his allotted
task to take up the work of Albert and drive home the attack so
successfully begun by his illustrious teacher.

One of the greatest results achieved by St. Thomas in his active
scholastic career was to force
upon the learned world the recognition of the fact that the spheres of
faith and reason are distinct; and that reason alone can exercise no
independent jurisdiction in the domain of supernatural truth. This was
an event of vital importance in the conflict between rationalism and
faith. In the development of philosophical thought, many questions,
originally of a strictly metaphysical character, took on in their
implications a theological significance whose solution the theologians
claimed for their exclusive function. In reprisal, the intellectual
liberals of those days, following the example of Erigena and Abelard,
identified the science of philosophy with that of theology, and
declared that the mysteries of religion constituted legitimate matter
for the searchings and probings of human reason.

By the brilliancy and incontrovertible character of his argument, St.
Thomas forced the admission that the domain of reason does not extend
to all the facts of supernatural truth; that, while philosophy may be
the efficient handmaid of theology, it can never be its mistress, or
even co-laborer, in the determination of supernatural knowledge.

No more brilliant exponent of the power of human reason ever existed
than the Angel of the Schools; yet none was more keenly conscious of
its limitations and its utter impotency where the mysteries of religion
were concerned. With unerring precision he drew a line of demarcation
between natural and supernatural truths, and forced the withdrawal of
the latter from all discussion that was based entirely upon human
reason. In fine, the result of his encounter with the rationalists was,
as Dr. Uberweg puts it, "the complete accomplishment
of the until then imperfect separation of natural from revealed
theology, revelation being now withdrawn as a theological mystery from
the sphere of philosophical speculation." This victory found concrete
expression in a decree approved in Paris in the year 1271, which
asserted the supremacy of theology and forbade the professors of the
philosophical faculty to treat of any essentially theological
questions. But this was only one of the many triumphs of the
master-mind, to whom Huxley referred in his "Science and Morals" as
"the other Doctor of the Catholic Church, 'Divus Thomas,' as
Suarez calls him, whose marvellous grasp and subtlety of intellect seem
to be almost without parallel." St. Thomas' marvellous power of
synthesis finds its most perfect expression in his Summa. This
monumental work was begun in Bologna in 1271. It is a vast summary of
all Catholic theology and philosophy and, more than all his other
wriings, furnishes the key to his thought and the manner of its
expression. In this stupendous work he gathers the scattered and
seemingly unrelated elements of Christian theology, and clarifies,
co-ordinates, harmonizes and weaves them into a magnificant fabric,
wherein theology and philosophy conspire to show forth the beauty of
God's eternal truth. Not only did the Angelic Doctor summarize,
systematize and illumine all theology, placing it safely beyond the
destructive assaults of rationalism, but he completed the work of
Christianizing the philosophy of Aristotle. In fact, the Angelic
Doctor built up his magnificent system of theology on that very
Aristotelianism which
had come in for so much condemnation at the hands of the early Fathers
of the Church as the prolific source of all theological errancy,
especially the Arian and Monophysite heresies. He effectively refuted
the dangerous teachings of Averroes and Avicenna, proving them heretics
even in the peripatetic school of philosophy, created a Christian
psychology, subordinated reason to faith, and established the supremacy
of dogma in the schools. His theological writings may be summed up in
the words of Ozanam as "a vast synthesis of moral science, in which was
unfolded all that could be known of God and man and their mutual
relations."

It has been well said that "St. Thomas surveyed the field of human
thought from a loftier standpoint than any sage of Greece or Rome, and
mapped it out with a fullness and precision unattained by him whom he
reverently calls 'The Philosopher'."

Not the least service conferred by the Angelic Doctor upon his Order
was the founding of a school of theology which now for over six hundred
years has held the devotion and preserved the doctrinal unity of all
succeeding generations of Dominicans. Ambrose of Sienna elaborated a
theological system of his own and one well worthy of his great genius.
But he destroyed all his books and notes out of regard for St. Thomas
and to preserve unity of teaching in the Order.

The paternal affection entertained by Albert the Great for his
illustrious pupil, St. Thomas, is beautifully illustrated by the
following incident: The agitation which followed the adoption of the
Aristotelian philosophy was increased by the new methods and new
opinions of St. Thomas. Four years after the Angelic Doctor's death,
this hostility on the part of the reactionaries had not abated. On the
seventh of March (strange coincidence) 1277, Stephen Tempier, Bishop of
Paris, condemned four of his propositions. Albert, hearing of the
impending censure, though over eighty years old, and burdened with the
infirmities of age, traveled all the way from Cologne to Paris, after
the laborious manner of those days, to defend the memory of his
Dominican brother and illustrious pupil. In the light of the bitter
opposition to the entrance of religious among the professors of the
University of Paris there is no more honorable page in the history of
that university than the eloquent and pathetic letter addressed by the
united faculties of Paris to the Master General of the Dominicans
bewailing the death of St. Thomas, and praying that the university
might be given the honor of watching over his tomb.

As the encomiums showered upon St. Thomas by popes, councils and
theologians are without number, we can afford place for only three of
them. Speaking of his writings Innocent V said: "The teaching of this
Doctor beyond all others, has fitness of terms, manner of expression
and soundness of opinions; so that he who holds it will never swerve
from the path of truth: while on the contrary he who attacks it must
always be suspected." In even more eulogistic terms Pope John XXII
said: "His doctrine was not other than miraculous. He has enlightened
the Church more than all other doctors, and more profit can be gained
in a single
year by the study of his works than by devoting a lifetime to that of
other theologians. He has wrought as many miracles as he has written
'Articles'." Among many other beautiful tributes Leo XIII has given
expression to the following: "The oecumenical councils, where blossom
the flowers of all earthly wisdom, have always been careful to hold
Thomas Aquinas in singular honor." Significant also are the words of
the apostate Bucer: "Take away St. Thomas and I will destroy the
Church." It will be seen, therefore, that it was not without reason
that the historian Hallam called him "the polar star of every true
Dominican."

Pope St. Pius V proclaimed St. Thomas a Doctor of the Church in 1567.
During the Council of Trent his Summa Theologica reposed side by
side with the Bible throughout the deliberations of that august body.
On August 4, 1880, Pope Leo XIII proclaimed the Angelic Doctor "Patron
of all Universities, Academies, Colleges, and Catholic Schools." Great
as a theologian, he was even greater as a saint, and so by common
consent the Catholic world honors him with the title of "Angelic
Doctor."

Another distinguished philosopher and contemporary of St. Thomas was
Robert of Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury. A master in the old
Augustian school of theology, he had but little sympathy with the new
methods and the novel views of his younger Dominican brother, St.
Thomas. His treatise on the origin and division of knowledge has been
called the most important introduction to the philosophy of the Middle
Ages.

As the primary purpose of the Order's existence is the extirpation of
heresy and the defence of the
Faith, Catholic polemics assumed from the very beginning a place of
the greatest importance in the Dominican school of theology. The
Albigenses, Waldenses, Averrohists, Nominalists, Rationalists, Arabs
and Jews were the principal opponents of the Dominican apologists; and
against these enemies of the Faith they launched their attacks with
consummate skill, tireless energy and, usually, with entire success.
Among these valiant athletes of Christ who fought so courageously in
defence of His honor and glory we can mention only a few of the most
conspicuous: In 1244 Moneta of Cremona, famous throughout Lombardy for
his erudition, sanctity and religious zeal, wrote his work "Against the
Cathari and Waldenses." It is regarded as the most scholarly work
produced in the Middle Ages against these sectaries.

St. Thomas of Aquin was the unconquerable apologist, as well as the
brilliant expositor, of Catholic doctrine. His "Treatise Against
Unbelievers," one of his greatest compositions, was written at the
request of St. Raymond of Pennafort, who recognized the urgent
necessity of a philosophical exposition of the Catholic Faith for the
use of the missionaries combating the Arabian and Jewish philosophy,
then so wide-spread in Spain. It is said that during its composition
the saintly author was often seen in ecstasy. His "Treatise Against the
Errors of the Greeks" was written at the request of Urban IV, who
cherished the hope of effecting a union of the Greeks with the Latin
Church.

St. Antoninus, the gentle Archbishop of Florence, while not an
apologist, was one of the foremost theologians of the Order. The
creation of the science
of moral theology in its present form is generally conceded to date
from the publication of his monumental work on that subject. No less
worthy of mention among the great theologians of the Friars Preachers
is Peter Soto, the last of the brethren to lecture publicly at Oxford,
and Capreolus, professor of theology at the University of Paris, called
"Prince of Thomists."

In the last quarter of the thirteenth century Raymond Martin wrote his
scholarly work entitled, "The Champion of the Faith," against the
errors of Judaism. Its worth is in no small measure the result of the
author's extensive and first-hand knowledge of rabbinic literature. It
is generally conceded to be the most important medieval contribution to
the literature of oriental philosophy. Scarcely a half-century later
Riccoldo di Monte Croce, a missionary in the East, composed his
"Defence of the Faith" against the teachings of the Koran. It is based
entirely upon Arabian literature. Luther thought well enough of it to
translate it into German in the sixteenth century.

The fidelity of the children of St. Dominic to the Holy See and the
intrepid defence of its rights is proverbial throughout the Church. Was
it not their devotion to the Spouse of Christ, and the Faith of which
she is the divinely appointed depository, which won for them the
sobriquet "watch dogs of the Lord," by which they soon became known
throughout the Church? Few among them better deserved this honorable
title than John Torquemada. A man of vast erudition and great
intellect, his best efforts were given to an uncompromising defence of
the teachings of the Church and the rights of
the Holy See. Because of his devotion to these interests Eugenitis IV
conferred upon him the glorious title, less worthily borne by a king of
England, of "Defender of the Faith." He must not be confounded with his
much more widely known nephew, Thomas Torquemada, of the Spanish
Inquisition.

Luther's defiance of Rome and the reign of religious anarchy which
followed it made it imperatively necessary for the loyal children of
the Church to rally to her defence in this her sorest hour of need.
With vigorous rhetoric, some learning and boundless arrogance the
arch-heretic was daily rejecting the doctrine and repudiating the
authority of the Holy See. The unreligious, whose passions he
unbridled, whose excesses he justified, whose faith he destroyed, were
constantly growing in numbers behind him. It was urgently necessary, if
the tide of rebellion was to be stemmed, that the ablest of the
Church's sons should hasten to exert their best efforts for the defence
of the Faith. It is needless to say that the Friars Preachers were
among the first to fling themselves into the conflict. To rhetoric they
opposed reason; to the errors of a darkened intellect, divine Faith; to
human arrogance, the humility of Christ. Concerning the part played by
the Friars Preachers in this great crisis of the Church's history the
learned historian, Dr. Paulus of Munich, has written: "It may well be
said that in the difficult conflict through which the Catholic Church
had to pass in Germany in the sixteenth century, no other religious
order furnished, in the literary sphere, so many champions, or so well
equipped, as the Order of St. Dominic."

The first of the Order to be called to assume a conspicuous part in the
defence of the Faith was
Sylvester Prierias. By command of Leo X he answered the arguments of
Luther; and most effectively did the Master of the Sacred Palace
accomplish his task. Tetzel followed with his learned theses, written
in German, "On Indulgences and Grace." Later, at the University of
Frankfort on the Oder, he controverted the errors of Luther in one
hundred and six propositions characterized by sound reasoning and great
erudition. In 1518, at the same university, Tetzel defended the papal
power in fifty propositions dealing with that subject.

But of all the Dominican opponents of Luther, by far the most
illustrious, and the one the most feared by him, was Thomas de Vio,
better known as Cardinal Cajetan. He was created a Master of Theology
at the age of twenty-six and was regarded as one of the most learned
theologians of his age. Pope Leo X, who placed implicit confidence in
his ability, appointed him papal legate to receive the submission of
Luther at Augsburg. His wonderful commentary on the Summa
Theologica of St. Thomas merited for him the title of "Prince of
Commentators."

The opening year of the sixteenth century marked the beginning of the
Spanish-Dominican school of theologians and writers, which included
some of the ablest scholars of the Order. Among them were Francis of
Vittoria, the teacher of Cano, Medina and Soto, who more than any other
man of his times influenced theological teaching in the universities of
Spain; Dominic Soto, chief professor of theology at the University of
Salamanca and one of the most distinguished theologians at the Council
of Trent; Melchior Cano, the celebrated author of the classic
work, "Concerning Theological Sources"* and the creator of the modern
school of apologetics; Bartolome de Medina, whose name is inseparably
associated with the system of Probabilism; and Dominic Banez, the
spiritual director of St. Theresa, whose commentary on the Summa of St.
Thomas entitles him to a place among the greatest theologians of his
times. In the following century the succession of illustrious Dominican
theologians was continued in the land of St. Dominic's nativity. The
controversy between the Jesuits and the Dominicans on the relations of
free will and grace revealed in heroic stature more than one of the
Dominican champions of Thomism. Thomas de Lemos was the learned
opponent of the system of Molina before the illustrious congregation
(de Auxiliis) which sat in judgment upon the controversy at
Rome. But previous to his appearance before the council the cause of
Thomistic theology, in relation to the subject of the dispute, had been
learnedly and valiantly defended for three years by his
confrère, Diego Alvarez. John of St. Thomas was the glory of the
University of Alcala and the light of the Spanish Church of his time.

The opening of the Council of Trent offered yet another opportunity to
the Friars Preachers to place their valuable services at the disposal
of the Church, an offer of which the Holy See was not slow to take
advantage. In all, over fifty members of the Order were present at its
sessions. Dominic Soto was present as personal representative of
Charles V. and
at the head of all the theologians sent to the council by his Imperial
Majesty. In the first six sessions of the council he also represented
the Master General of the Order. Barthelemy de Spina was another
Dominican who took a conspicuous part in the deliberations of the
council. Leonard Marinis, Archbishop of Lanciano, was present as papal
legate, and subsequently, in company with two other members of the
Order, Giles Foscarari and Francis Forerio, was chosen to draw up what
was to be known as the "Catechism of the Council of Trent." If the
Angel of the Schools was not present in the flesh he was there in
spirit, for his immortal Summa reposed by the side of the Bible
on a table in the chamber of the council. His teaching dominated in a
very large measure the discussions and the decisions of the council.
Indeed, more than one of the Tridentine decrees is couched in almost
the very words of St. Thomas, a fact due no doubt to the presence of
Dominic Soto, who with others was deputed to formulate the dogmatic
decrees of the council. To such an extent did the teaching of the
Thomists permeate the deliberations of the council that in 1593, when
Clement III expressed the wish that the Jesuits should follow the
theological system of St. Thomas, he could point out that this great
council had approved and accepted his works.

Scripture

The two studies which were most generally followed in the Middle Ages
were Scripture and theology. In the curriculum of the Order they held
places of equal honor. The study and teaching of
the Scriptures were entered upon with enthusiasm from the very
beginning of the Institute. Each Dominican had to have at least three
books -- a Bible, the Sentences of Peter Lombard and an ecclesiastical
history. In the light of their preaching vocation it was necessary that
they be thoroughly familiar with the contents of the sacred pages. The
unlettered populace might not be able to grasp a theological argument,
set forth with scholastic precision and formality, but it could always
catch the meaning of the scriptural texts profusely employed to
illustrate the preacher's discourse. The simple language, the familiar
examples and the inspiring truths of the Scriptures were fully within
the scope of their understanding. Consequently, whatever might make the
contents of the sacred pages more available to the preacher, and the
accuracy of the text more reliable, was to the Dominicans a matter of
vital importance. It was with this end in view that the general chapter
held in Paris in 1236 ordered that a "concordance" of the entire Bible
be prepared by members of the Order. This "concordance" was a
dictionary of the Bible, with all the words of the sacred text arranged
in alphabetical order and accompanied by references indicating the
book, chapter and verse in which they would be found. A work of this
kind had been attempted before the Friars Preachers undertook it, but
it had met with but a scant measure of success. To Hugh of St. Cher,
afterwards the first cardinal of the Order, who edified all France by
his piety, as he astonished it with his learning, was intrusted this
important work, and under his direction it was brought to a completely
successful issue by the brethren at
Paris in the famous convent of St. James. Under the title of "The
English Concordance" it was amplified in 1276 by the English
Dominicans, Richard of Stavensby and Hugh of Croydon, under the
direction of John of Darlington. In this work not only was each word
given, but the entire phrase in which it occurred.

In the absence of the art of printing in the Middle Ages, it was
necessary for the multiplication of copies of the Bible to resort to
the laborious efforts of the copyists, who reproduced, letter by
letter, the entire contents of the Sacred Scriptures. But as even Homer
nodded, it was only natural that from time to time, by the inadvertence
of these devoted monks, errors should creep into the pages of the
volumes on which they labored. When detected, these inaccuracies were
noted in the margin of the text. After a while they became so numerous
that it became necessary to embody them in a separate volume called a
"correctory."

In 1236 the Friars Preachers brought to a successful conclusion the
task of revising the entire Vulgate text of the Bible, embodying all
their amendments in the first Dominican correctory. This tremendous
task was accomplished, like the work of the concordance, by the
community of St. James, under the direction of Hugh of St. Cher, then a
professor of the University of Paris. The collation with the Hebrew
text was accomplished, by the subprior of St. James, Theobald of
Saxonia, a converted Jew. This was the first corrected copy of the
Scriptures in the Middle Ages. The general chapter of 1236 commanded
that all the Bibles of the Order be corrected according to this
exemplar.
Eight of the manuscripts of Hugh of St. Cher in connection with
this work are still extant. Two other correctories were produced within
the following thirty-one years. The Bible on which the University of
Paris based its lectures was a particular Alcunian text of the Vulgate.
The great vogue which this Bible enjoyed for so long a time was due to
its divisions into chapters by Hugh of St. Cher. To his prodigious
industry was also mainly due the Bible of Sens.

When we consider the difficulties under which these scriptural scholars
labored -- the scarcity of books, the absence of archaeological studies
and the related sciences, the lack of data which is now within the
reach of every student of the Bible -- we are able to form some idea of
the vast industry, varied learning, profound study and tireless
research necessary for these and the subsequent contributions to
Dominican biblical literature.

In the immensely important work of translating the Bible into the
vernacular of the different countries of Europe the Order of St.
Dominic played an especially creditable part. Theirs were the first
translations into the vulgar tongues of many of these nations. The
Dominican James of Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, was the first to
translate the Bible into Italian. This translation appeared about 1260.
So great was the zeal for souls of the first missionaries of the Order
that Blessed Bartolommeo Parvi, of Bologna, missionary bishop in
Armenia, did not hesitate to undertake amidst his arduous apostolic
labors to translate the Bible into Armenian. This he successfully
accomplished about 1330. Augustine Gustiniani, who introduced the
cultivation of
oriental tongues into the University of Paris, translated the Psalter
into five languages. The Dominicans, Jean de Sy, Jehan Nicholas,
William Vivien and Jehan de Chambly, were the principal authors of the
manuscript Bible of King. John the Good, which was begun in the second
half of the fourteenth century. Though never finisbed, it has been
described by competent authority as "a work of science and good taste."
Notwithstanding the oft-repeated assertion of Protestants that Luther
first gave the Bible to the people in their native tongue, the first
translation of the Bible into German was made by John Rellach of the
Order of Preachers. On the strength of a Nuremberg manuscript, Jostes
established the fact that this translation appeared before 1450 --
thirty-three years before Luther was born. A complete manuscript
version of the Bible in Italian was made by the Dominican Nicholas de
Nardo in 1472, and is now preserved in the National Library in Paris.
For the benefit of the Hungarians, John Sylvester translated the
Scriptures into their vernacular in 1541. Members of the Order also
translated the Bible into Catalonian, Valencian and Castilian. An
interlinear version from the original languages was made in the first
half of the sixteenth century by the famous Dominican scriptural
scholar, Xantes Pagninus. Its literal fidelity to the originals made it
acceptable even to Jews and Reformers. A similar translation was begun
by Thomas Malvenda, who died in 1628 before he had finished the Book of
Ezechiel. A notable translation of the New Testament was made in 1542
by the Italian Dominican, Zaccaria Florentini. Another German version
that ante-dated that of
Luther -- this time by eighteen years -- was that published at Mainz
in 1534 by John Dietenberger. He was the second Dominican to anticipate
Luther's so-called and much-lauded unlocking of the Scriptures in the
interests of the German people. Fifty-eight editions of this version
had been published by 1776. One of the three collaborators who gave to
the Catholics of Holland their first authoritative Dutch Bible was the
Dominican, Godevaert Stryode. This version was revised after it had
gone through seventeen complete editions. It first appeared in 1545. In
1547 John Henton brought out at Louvain a corrected text of the
Vulgate, with variants, which met with a favorable reception and was
subsequently republished at Antwerp in 1583. Two of the most
interesting contributions by Dominicans to Bible literature are of our
own times. To offset the influence of a mutilated reprint of the Arabic
Bible circulated by the Protestant Bible Society, the Dominican Fathers
at Mosul, in Mesopotamia, issued from their own press in 1878, a
complete Arabic version of the Bible. The other is a publication by the
Fathers of the same place of the Syriac version of the Bible issued
from the Dominican printing-press at Mosul. This is the version known
since the ninth century as the "Simple" or "Peschitto." It dates back
to the second century. The publication of this new edition was
superintended by Mgr. Henry Aitmayer, the Dominican Apostolic Delegate.
The, Patriarch of the Babylonians, Mgr. Abolynam, has approved this
edition and ordered its use in his provinces. The foregoing, though the
most important, are by no means all the translations of the Bible which
owe their existence
to the industry of scriptural scholars of the Order. The lack of space
forbids a longer list.

But it was not merely in the field of revision, translation and
concordances that the Friars Preachers prosecuted their scriptural
labors. They achieved even greater renown in the work of biblical
commentaries. To Hugh of St. Cher, that prodigy of scriptural
scholarship, must be accorded the credit of giving to the Church the
first complete commentary on the Scriptures. This enormous work fills
eight folio volumes. The lectures delivered in the Dominican schools by
Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas were afterwards put into permanent form
and now constitute the biblical commentaries of those two giant
intellects. The "Golden Chain" of St. Thomas was an exposition of the
four Gospels written for the benefit of clerics. It was made up of
excerpts from the Fathers so arranged as to constitute a continuous
commentary on the text. In 1845 Cardinal Newman finished its
translation into English. What St. Thomas did for the four Gospels,
Nicholas of Trevet accomplished with regard to the entire Bible. In the
sixteenth century a large number of Catholic scholars were engaged in
correcting the New Testament of the Vulgate by the Greek. Conspicuous
among them were the Dominicans, Cardinal Cajetan and Santes Pagninus.
It was the solid and brilliant scholarship of these, and a host of
other Bible scholars who followed them, that led Vercellone to pay the
Order the following compliment: "To the Dominican Order belongs the
glory of having first renewed in the Church the illustrious example of
Origen and St. Augustine by the ardent cultivation of sacred
criticism."

The contributions of the Order to the cognate branches of Bible science
were of the most substantial character, and in many of these studies
Dominicans were pioneers. Thus, Sixtus of Sienna, a converted Jew, in
the sixteenth century created in his Bibliotheca Sancta the
department of introduction to the Sacred Scriptures. To Riccoldo da
Montecroce must be accorded the credit of having introduced in his
Itinerarium the study of Bible ethnology; and Biblical
archaeology owes much to Raymond Martin,the founder of biblical
orientalism.

That the ancient love of scriptural study has by no means diminished
within the Order is witnessed by the famous biblical school conducted
by the Dominicans at Jerusalem. From the time of its foundation, some
twenty-six years ago, it has been the foremost institution of its kind
in the Church. Its comprehensive curriculum embraces every department
of science pertaining to the study of the Bible -- Semitic languages,
Greek, epigraphy, topography of Jerusalem, geography of the Holy Land
and the other biblical countries, history, introduction, exegesis and
many other cognate branches. The academic studies are supplemented by
archaeological journeys around the Holy City and by expeditions across
the hills and deserts of Palestine.

The wide-spread fame of its professors is based not merely upon the
enthusiastic admiration of their students, but upon the many original
and scholarly works with which they have challenged the attention of
the learned world and compelled its applause. Chief of this
distinguished body is Father Lagrange. Among his most celebrated works
are La Methode Historique; La Messianisme chez
les Juifs; Etudes sur les Religions Semitiques: Commentary on
Judges. These with his commentary on St. Mark prove how familiar he is
with the problems of the Old and New Testaments. The latter is
considered one of the best commentaries on the second Gospel and a
complete refutation of the heretical doctrines of Loisy. Pére
Dhorme is known among biblical scholars throughout the world, not only
for his commentary on the Books of Samuel, but for his constantly
growing reputation as an Assyriologist. Pére Vincent is the
archaeologist of the faculty. His work on Canaan has already assumed
the character of a classic. For twenty years he gathered matter for a
history of Jerusalem, in the writing of which he collaborated with
Pére Abel. These and others of the faculty at Jerusalem have
given to the school at that place a position of unrivalled honor in the
Church. We shall close the consideration of this subject by pointing
out that when, in 1901, Pope Leo XIII founded the famous Biblical
Commission at Rome, he included in its membership four well-known
Dominican scholars -- Fathers Esser, Lagrange, Lepidi and Scheil.

Canon Law

In the person of Raymond of Pennafort the Order gave to the Church one
of its greatest canonists. At the request of Gregory IX he gathered
together in one work all the decrees of the Roman councils, scattered
through various documents and letters. He supplied the decretals
omitted by the Benedictine monk, Gratian, and edited those given out
after
the time of that indefatigable compiler. These he published in 1234.
So accurately was this great work compiled that not only the individual
documents contained therein, but the compilation itself, has been
recognized as authoritative by all the pontiffs from Gregory IX to the
present incumbent of the Holy See. By pontifical decree it became the
official text-book on canon law at the universities of Paris and
Bologna, and finally supplanted completely the work of Gratian. The
collection has the same force of law to-day that it had almost seven
hundred years ago. This encyclopedic work, as the result of the
author's tireless industry, was completed in three years, and
immediately acquired such enduring fame that to-day it is known simply
as "The Decretals." It was the last complete summary of ecclesiastical
legislation.

In the latter half of the thirteenth century Martin of Troppan, Bishop
of Gnesen, and Martin of Fano Mayor of Genoa before his entrance into
the Order were among the famous canonists of their day. Nicholas of
Ennezat, in the fourteenth century, and in the sixteenth, John Dominic
and John Torquemada, were ranked by their contemporaries among the
foremost canonists of the age in which they lived.

The two standard works of the Middle Ages dealing with laws governing
the Inquisition were, Directorium Inquisitionis hereticae
pravitatis and the Directorium Inquisitorum. The former was the
work of Bernard Guidonis, and the latter of Nicholas Eymerich, both of
the Order of St. Dominic.

Languages

The universal character of the preaching apostolate which constituted
the vocation of the Dominicans made it mandatory for them to acquire
the widest possible familiarity with languages. Their mission in the
Church was neither local, nor national, nor continental, but universal
-- catholic. To participate in the true spirit of their Order the
Friars Preachers must not look forward to a lifelong apostolate in
their native land. Like the Apostles, to whom the Lord said, "Go ye
into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature," they
must be prepared to be assigned to any quarter of the world or to any
people on the earth for their life's labor. It was necessary,
therefore, for the greater efficiency and scope of their labor that
they should be, as a body, familiar with every language spoken by the
tongues of men.

It was accordingly decreed by the Most General Chapter in 1236 that in
all convents the language of the neighboring countries should be
studied. In this manner each member of the Institute was enabled to
extend his apostolate beyond the confines of his native land, and so
participate in the universal spirit of the Order.

But a European apostolate was not the idea of universality which St.
Dominic had conceived for his Institute. It was to be truly a world
power, in a spiritual sense. The truths of Christianity were to be
proclaimed and defended not only in France, Poland, Russia and Sweden,
but in Palestine, Arabia and the farthest Orient.

The study of oriental languages was, moreover, cognate to the study of
theology and philosophy, since many of the writings of Aristotle and
other philosophers were accessible only through translations from the
Hebrew and the Arabic. These two languages constituted the serviceable
medium for the introduction into Europe of more than one heresy.
Aristotle's brilliant reasoning came forth with halting step from the
miserable versions of Averroes and Avicenna, who corrupted it to
bolster up their own peculiar systems. In order, therefore, the more
effectively to refute these and other Eastern commentators the Arabic
and Hebrew languages were immediately taken up and given a permanent
place in the Dominican curriculum.

The General Chapter of 1310 commanded the Master General to establish
in several provinces schools for the study of Hebrew, Greek and Arabic,
to which each province of the Order should send at least one student.
But long before this law was enacted the study of foreign languages had
been provided for by individual provincials and priors. This was
especially true of superiors in whose territory many Orientals dwelt.

It was, of course, necessary for the Dominican professors at the
University of Paris to be familiar with Arabic for the purpose of
combating the teachings of Averroes and Avicenna, which were beginning
to exercise an unwholesome influence upon the thought of the times. To
counteract the growing power of the Jews in Spain a knowlege of Hebrew
was not less imperative. From the beginning of the Order the Friars
Preachers recognized the necessity of acquiring these languages.
Consequently,
when Augustino Gustiniani, a versatile linguist as well as a profound
scripturist, appeared at Paris he was able to accept the invitation to
inaugurate a course of public lectures in Hebrew at the university. So
familiar were the members of the Order in the first part of the century
with the Hebrew language that on their appearance at the University of
Oxford they were assigned a place for their convent in the Ghetto, that
they might labor the more effectively for the conversion of the Jews.
So proficient in the use of these languages did they become that in
1237 Father Phillippe, Provincial of the Holy Land, could write to
Gregory IX to inform him that his religious had preached to the people
in the different languages of the Orient, especially in Arabic. About
the middle of the thirteenth century St. Raymond Pennafort, third
Master General of the Order, established schools of oriental languages
at Tunis and Barcelona. A school of Arabic was established at Tunis
about the middle of the thirteenth century; at Barcelona, another, in
1259; yet another at Murcia in 1267; in 1281 one at Valencia. The same
province established schools for the study of Hebrew at Barcelona in
1281 and at Jativa in 1291. The purpose of these schools was to combat
the increasing aggressiveness of the Jews and Mohammedans, who
constituted a very large, powerful and hostile element of the
population of Spain. Twenty of the brethren conversant with Hebrew and
Arabic were sent to these colleges to write and preach against the
errors of the unbelievers. It was for this reason, too, that at the
request of St. Raymond St. Thomas wrote his magnificent philosophical
summa, Contra Gentiles.

Raymond Martin was the most illustrious product of the schools founded
by St. Raymond for the study of oriental languages. This famous
champion of the Faith could speak and write fluently Hebrew, Chaldaic
and Arabic. He composed a work in Arabic against the Koran, and another
in Hebrew against the Talmud. These works remain to this day astounding
monuments of the varied erudition of the thirteenth century. Clement
VIII generously expressed his appreciation of the work done by the
Dominicans in the study of oriental languages when he said that by the
introduction of Hebrew and Arabic learning St. Raymond had contributed
to the glory of both Spain and the Church, and had been the cause of
the conversion of over ten thousand of the infidels, many of them among
the most learned of their kind.

In the study of Greek the Order took even a greater interest. Shortly
after the death of St. Dominic familiarity with this language was
widespread among the Dominicans. Every year a number of young men were
sent to Greece to perfect themselves in the language of Plato and
Aristotle. Though not a consummate Hellenist, in the sense of the
Humanists, St. Thomas possessed an excellent working knowledge of the
Greek language. In the Catena Aurea, alone, he cites the
opinions of sixty Greek writers. In the Summa he cites twenty
ecclesiastical and about the same number of secular Greek authors,
including Heraclitus and Aristophanes. His commentary on De
Interpretatione offers some criticisms on the Greek text.

William of Brabant, sometimes called William of Moerbeke, was one of
the young Dominicans sent
to Greece to study the classic language of that country. On his
return, in 1268, he was made chaplain to Clement IV, and afterward to
Gregory X. He was also appointed Greek secretary at the Council of
Lyons in 1274. At this Council he was one of those who chanted the
Nicene Creed in Greek, thrice repeating the words Qui ex Patre
Filioque procedit, contested by the Greek Church.

At the instance of St. Thomas, William of Brabant produced, in 1273, a
literal Latin translation of the Greek text of all the works of
Aristotle. After this it was possible to study Aristotle without having
recourse to the corrupted translations from the Arabic, which soon fell
into desuetude. He was made Archbishop of Corinth in 1277, but
continued to translate from the Greek into Latin. Besides Aristotle, he
rendered into Latin Simplicius, Proclus, Ammonius, Hippocrates and
Gallen.

Thomas of Cantimprè, who entered the Order in 1232, also
acquired great renown as a translator from the Greek. He rendered into
Latin most of Aristotle's works on morals.

Geoffrey of Waterford translated the Physiognomica and De
Regimine Principum of Aristotle from the original Greek.

Literature

One of the most striking things about the literary activities of the
Friars Preachers, especially in the Middle Ages, is that, besides their
original and creative works, they were constantly summing up in
encyclopedic form the world's knowledge in general, as well as on
individual subjects. As the Dominicans corrected the entire Vulgate
version of the
Bible, codified the entire body of canon law, and wove the whole
fabric of Christian theology and philosophy into a synthetic and
harmonious work of moral science, they may justly lay claim to the
credit of summing up all the existing knowledge of Christendom. Such
was the stupendous work of Albertus Magnus, covering almost every
subject that had engaged the attention of the human intellect. Such,
also was the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas, in which every
subject related directly or indirectly to theology was examined and
elucidated. As we have already given some consideration to these works
under other titles we shall immediately enter upon the consideration of
one of the greatest works producd by the human intellect in any age of
the world's history. This is "The Greater Mirror" of that intellectual
giant of the thirteenth century -- for there were giants in those days
-- Vincent of Beauvais. Albert the Great, St. Thomas and Vincent of
Beauvais constitute a trilogy of intellects such as is rarely found in
the entire history of an Order, not to speak of a single decade.
Vincent was without doubt one of the greatest encyclopedists who have
thus far attempted the task of summing up the world's knowledge. He
conceived and executed the heroic design of writing a work which would
be a temple consecrated to the custody of universal knowlege. This
work, one of the most remarkable contributions to general literature in
any age, he realized in his encyclopedia called "The Greater Mirror."
In this tremendous work he compiled the then sum of the world's
knowledge under the heads of "Nature," "Morals," "Doctrine" and
"History," adding his own luminous commentaries and special treatises.

Under the head of "Nature," he deals, following the order recorded in
Genesis, with the whole work of creation -- the heavens, the earth, the
natural kingdoms, and the corporeal and mental make-up of man. This
part is contained in a folio volume of two thousand double-columned,
closely-printed pages and is divided into thirty-two books containing
four thousand chapters. In describing this wonderful work the
Encyclopedia Britannica says: "It was, as it were, the great triumph of
medieval science, whose floor and walls are inlaid with an enormous
mosaic of skillfully arranged passages from Latin, Greek, Arabic and
even Hebrew authors."

The second part, entitled "Morals," is contained in two folio volumes,
and treats of the conclusions of all the great theologians of the age.
Under "Doctrine" he writes of all the arts and sciences. The historical
part contains a history of the world.

In this marvelous work, which has served for the basis of even modern
encyclopedias, Vincent reviews, arranges, and compiles all extant
knowledge, sacred and profane, Christian and pagan. In an age in which
books were so scarce and so costly, we can readily understand how
scholars in every branch of learning journeyed from the remotest parts
of Europe to consult "The Greater Mirror" of Vincent of Beauvais.

Dr. Julius Pagel, in his treatise on "Medicine in the Middle Ages"
asserts that Vincent of Beauvais must be considered the most important
contributor to the generalization of scientific knowledge, not alone in
the thirteenth, but in the immediately
succeeding centuries. With true scientific spirit he constantly cites
the authorities from whom his information is derived. He cites hundreds
of authors and there is scarcely a subject he does not touch on. This
great work would have failed of accomplishment, a fact to which Vincent
himself bears witness, had it not been for the splendid and harmonious
cooperation of his Dominican brethren in collecting material, collating
references and verifying quotations. They sank their own ambitions in
the general good, and found ample reward in the service they conferred
upon the cause of human science. "The Greater Mirror" is a fair example
of the earnest and tireless efforts of the Friars Preachers for the
diffusion of knowledge throughout the Middle Ages.

Thomas of Cantimprè, considered by Pagel, the Protestant author
just quoted, as one of the three most popular writers of the thirteenth
century, is another Dominican whose writing took on encyclopedic
proportions. One of his works, "Concerning the Nature of Things,"
contains twenty books and required fifteen years for its writing. The
variety of its learning is indicated by the fact that it treats, among
other things, of anatomy, animals, birds, fishes, serpents, precious
stones and the elements of the universe.

We have already considered the encyclopedic work of Raymond of
Pennafort. In his work, "The Decretals," he summarizes, harmonizes,
condenses and orders the laws of the Church for over twelve hundred
years. It may be truthfully said, therefore, that these great master
minds of the Order, Hugh of St. Cher, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas of
Aquin,
Raymond of Pennafort, Thomas of Cantimprè and Vincent of
Beauvais summed up among them the contents of human knowledge and made
it easily available for all who sought it.

Another member of the Order who, though now unheard of outside the
circles of historians and bibliophiles, was Hugh Ripelin, one of the
best known writers among Dominican theologians. His "Compendium of
Theological Truth" was the most widely used and most famous manual of
theology in the Middle Ages.

In his century St. Antoninus continued amid the exacting duties of his
archiepiscopal office the encyclopedic efforts of the giants of the
previous century. Not only did he practically create the science of
modern moral theology and make pioneer contributions to the science of
economics, but over and above all these absorbing tasks he could find
time to write the first complete history of the world. Over a century
before St. Antoninus wrote his "Universal History" his brother
Dominicans Ptolemy of Lucca and Bernard Guidonis, were regarded as the
two great ecclesiastical historians of the early fourteenth century. In
the sixteenth century Bartholomew de Las Casas wrote his well-known
"History of the Indies"; while in the latter part of the seventeenth
century Noel Alexander published his twenty-four-volume history of the
New Testament and his dissertations on the history of the Old
Testament.

Though St. Thomas had never given to the world the Summa he
still would have won literary immortality by virtue of the Office of
Corpus Christi whih he wrote at the request of Pope Urban IV. His
hymns to the Blessed Sacrament have been for over six hundred years
the very language of the sanctuary. Depth of thought, felicity of
expression, graceful energy, epigrammatic doctrine, and tender piety
are in evidence in every line of the Office of Corpus Christi. The
hymns of St. Thomas, touching the most sublime subjects, teaching the
most vital truths, breathe in every line the truest and purest of
poetic sentiment and feeling. Couched in an exactness of language that
seems almost impossible to rival, free from ostentatious adornment,
giving poetic expression to the deepest of divine mysteries in that
epigrammatic style to which the Latin is so well adapted, it is almost
a hopeless task to attempt to render them into English. Of two of his
poems Archbishop Vaughan thus writes: "The Pange Lingua and the
Sacris Solemniis, so exquisitely theological, so tenderly
effective, so reverently adoring, so expressive of every want and
aspiration of the human heart -- where are two hymns so touching, so
poetical, so angelical as they are? It is almost impossible to resist
the tender piety and the prayerful appeal contained in the Adoro
Te. To the soul of a poet the Angel of the Schools united the heart
of a saint and the vision of an angel and all three he consecrated in
his verse to the honor and glory of his Eucharistic God." With truth
has he been called "the sweet Psalmist of the Eucharist."

Among the notable contributions by Dominicans to Italian literature is
the "Mirror of True Penance," by Father Passavanti. It was translated
into Italian from the Latin by the author. A reprint of it was
published in 1861. The editor of the Della Cruscean Academy speaks of
it in the following
glowing terms: "'The Mirror of True Penance,' by Father Passavanti, a
Florentine by birth, a Dominican by religious profession, written in
the style of his day, but adorned with the purest gold of the most
refined eloquence, has gained a more than ordinary applause both for
the sacred matter it contains and the charm and beauty of its
composition. And as many have thought that it might without
disadvantage be compared with the writings of the most learned among
the first Fathers of the Church, so we also may consider it as inferior
to none of the choicest and most renowned masters of the Tuscan
tongue."

Another Dominican who enriched the Italian language by his literary
compositions in its formative period, the middle of the fourteenth
century, was Bartholomew a Santa Concordia. His work, "The Teaching of
the Ancients," receives high praise at the hands of Leonardo Salvati
for "its force, brevity, clearness, beauty, grace, sweetness, purity
and simple ease which are there to be seen in language worthy of the
best era of literature." The same critic adds: "This work is written in
the best and noblest style which the age had yet produced, and it would
be fortunate for our language were the volume larger." The
distinguished literary critic, Pignotti, places these two Friars
Preachers, together with their Dominican brother, Domenico Cavalca,
among the fathers of Italian literature.

No less worthy of a place among the makers of the Italian language is
the illustrious Dominican, Jordan of Pisa, whom his contemporaries
described as "a prodigy of nature and a miracle of grace." He was among
the first to attempt to establish the unformed and chaotic language of Italy on a scientific and literary
basis. In the few fragments of his sermons that are extant are to be
found all the essential elements of the best modern Italian. Not only
was he deeply versed in theology and philosophy, but also, as Marchese,
quoting Leander Albert, tells us, "joined the eloquence of Tully to the
memory of Mithridates."

But Italian was not the only language to which the Friars Preachers
helped to impart a scientific and literary character. To Tauler, the
famous Dominican mystic, the German language owes its first appearance
in the form of permanent literature. Of this famous preacher and writer
Hallam thus speaks: "John Tauler, a Dominican Friar of Strasburg,
whose influence in propagating the mystical theology gave a new tone to
his country, we may deem to be the first German writer in prose."
"Tauler," says the same historian of literature, "in his German sermons
mingled many expressions invented by himself which were the first
attempts at a philosophic language, and displayed surprising eloquence
for the age in which he lived." Tauler died in 1361.

But of all the books of the Middle Ages that came from the pens of
Dominican writers none approached in popularity, in the modern sense of
the term, "The Golden Legend," written by James of Voragine, Archbishop
of Genoa. It treated of the lives of the greater saints of the Church
from the beginning of Christianity, and of the legends and miracles
associated with them. Its purpose was to inculcate by means of these
concrete examples the excellence of the Christian virtues. Dr. Walsh,
in
his work, "The Thirteenth Century" includes it among the three most
widely read books of that century. Other historians assert that its
popularity continued unabated through the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. It was translated into every language of the West and was
one of the first books to be chosen to illustrate the new art of
printing in Italy.

In our own day the Order has given to ecclesiastical literature the
works of such theologians as Lepidi and Dummermuth; philosophers like
Cardinals Zigliara and Gonzales, and historians of the calibre of
Denifle, one of the most famous writers of medieval history, and
Guglielmotti, whose "Military and Maritime Dictionary" is the standard
work of its kind in Italy. "The History of the Pontifical Fleet" by the
same author, is regarded as a classic. Leo XIII held both these works
in such high esteem that he planned to have second editions of both
issued from the Vatican at his own expense. At Civita Vecchia, his
native city, an imposing monument was erected to his memory in 1913.

The names of Dominican writers and their works cited in this chapter
on the Order's literary activity have been chosen because they best
illustrate the industry, ability and versatility of the Friars
Preachers in this field of religious endeavor, and not with a view to
give a comprehensive list of the writers of the Order. In all there
have been over seven thousand writers of distinction in the ranks of
the Friars Preachers.

Among the more important of the publications of the Order are the
following. In France, L'Annee Dominicaine, Le Revue des Sciences
Philosophiques et
Theologiques, Revue Biblique and Revue Thomiste. In Spain is
published La Ciencia Tomista. The Analecta Ordinis
Praedicatorum is the official organ of the Order and is published
at Rome.

Science

Physical and applied sciences were not without their devotees among the
Dominicans of the thirteenth century. Albert the Great was doubtless
the greatest scientist of his age. Without noticing the fanciful
legends that have been woven into the biography of this altogether
extraordinary man, it may be said that his achievements in the field of
physical science were, in some instances at least, centuries ahead of
his times. He wrote extensively on astronomy, cosmology, botany,
mineralogy, geography and natural history. The a priori methods
of the schools did not blind him to the necessity of an inductive
system in the work of experimental science. This principle he was the
first to put into practice, and with the most gratifying results to
science. He, too, was the first to perceive the law of affinities in
the composition of metals. With the same earnest love of truth which
characterized his ecclesiastical writings, he combated the popular
fallacy of the transmutation of baser metals into gold by means of the
philosopher's stone. He clearly taught the influence of the sea on
littoral countries, and of similar influences exerted by mountains and
forests. The phenomena of disappearing islands and others produced by
volcanic action were not unknown to him. Dr. Jesser, who wastes no love
on Catholic scholars, equals Albert in his Cosmos to Aristotle
and Humboldt.

In his astronomy he taught that the "Milky Way" was nothing but a vast
assemblage of stars and that the figures visible on the moon's disk are
due to the configuration of its own surface. He rejects the teaching of
Aristotle concerning the rare appearance of lunar rainbows and asserts
that they may be seen as often as twice a year.

No less remarkable was his knowledge of botany. "No botanist," says
Meyer, the German historian of botany, "who lived before Albert can be
compared to him, unless Theophrastes, with whom he was not acquainted;
and after him none has painted nature in such living colors or studied
it so profoundly until the time of Conrad Gesner and Caesalpino." His
botanical works were edited by Meyer and published in Berlin in 1867.

Humboldt, a German naturalist of the early nineteenth century and one
of the most distinguished scholars of his time, thus expresses his
appreciation of Albert as a scientist: "Albertus Magnus was equally
active and influential in promoting the study of natural science and
the Aristotelian philosophy. His works contain some exceedingly acute
remarks on the organic structure and physiology of plants. One of his
works bearing the title Liber Cosmographicus de Natura Locorum,
is a species of physical geography. I have found in it considerations
on the dependence of temperature concurrently on latitude and
elevation, and on the effect of different angles of incidence of the
sun's rays in heating the ground, which have excited my surprise." The
work thus praised by Humboldt is rich in original observations on
ethnography and physiology. In fact, Albert not
only reviewed and compiled the entire scientific knowledge of his day,
but he enlarged and enriched it with the fruits of his own acute
observation and tireless experimenting. Considering the range and
magnitude of his labors, Hallam grudgingly says of him: "He may pass
for the most fertile writer of the world." Altogether he was, as
Englebert, his contemporary, says, "a man so Godlike in all science
that he may be suitably called the wonder and miracle of our times."

St. Thomas, like his master Albert, applied himself to the study of
natural science and made important contributions to the world's
knowledge of this subject. It was he who first gave expression, at the
University of Paris, to the principle, "Nothing is ever annihilated"
(Nihil omnino in nihilum redigetur). In announcing this
principle concerning the indestructibility of matter he anticipated by
six hundred years the recognition of the same truth by the chemists and
physicists of our own day. In the formulating of this principle he also
included the conservation of energy. To him also is assigned the
authorship of a remarkable book on the building of aqueducts and
another on bridge construction.

In the early part of the fourteenth century a Dominican scientist,
Father Dietrich, wrote a work on the "Theory of the Rainbow" which has
recently been translated into German by Professor Wuerschmidt of
Erlangen. Speaking of this work, another learned German, Professor
Hellmann, the famous meteorologist of Hamburg, says: "It is the
greatest achievement of its kind in the West during the Middle Ages."
He describes it as a most valuable contribution to the sciences with
which it deals. In
regard to its author the well-known Max Jacobi says: "Master Dietrich
was the first to discover that the rainbow originates through the
double breaking and one reflex of the rays of the sun in the raindrop.
We have to thank him for the first correct design of the path of the
ray as it enters and leaves the little sphere."

Among the engineers of his day there was none that excelled the
Dominican, Ignatius Dante. When the tyrant Charles Emmanuel of Savoy
menaced the freedom of Genoa, the republic called him to her assistance
to superintend the strengthening of the city's walls in preparation for
the coming conflict. Soon after he was called to Rome and made Master
of the Sacred Palace, thereby proving that he was as well versed in
sacred as in profane science. But his engineering skill was soon again
to be requisitioned. He was called upon to plan and superintend the
construction of the defensive works of the Island of Malta when it was
threatened by the Turks in 1640. On his return to Rome he was made a
cardinal by Urban VIII.

That the Dominicans employed their knowledge of science in behalf of
those among whom they labored is evident from the many valuable and
enduring works they erected on their missions. A single example of this
was a bridge designed and built by a Dominican engineer in the
Philippines. This bridge -- the famous old Tuguegaro bridge some years
ago being in need of repairs, an American engineer, Mr. Barrens, was
appointed to make a survey of the work and determine whether it should
be replaced by a modern structure. Mr. Barrens, who praised in
unqualified terms the work
of its builder, the noted Dominican missionary, Father Lobate, advised
against replacing the old bridge by a modern iron one. He expressed the
opinion that the old bridge, if properly repaired, would last more than
a hundred years longer, while one of modern material would cost 18,000
pesos and would have to be rebuilt within thirty years.

We cannot more appropriately close this chapter on the scientists of
the Order than by quoting the following statement of a modern
historian: "There are, moreover, an unnumbered multitude of Dominican
mathematicians, astronomers and geographers who are not unknown to the
historians of these branches of learning. But at the present day one
may drag out from obscurity -- if only the next moment to slip back
again -- the name of Joseph Galien, professor of Avignon University,
who in 1755 edited a little work on the navigation of the air." Thus,
the Friars Preachers not only compiled all existing knowledge in their
various encyclopedias and summaries, and by their luminous commentaries
made it available to a multitude of students, but by their experiments
and observations blazed the way to important discoveries and applied
their knowledge to constructive works that have made them substantial
benefactors of humanity.

Missionaries and Martyrs

The most perfect expression of the Dominican spirit is to be found in
its missionary achievement. More than all other works of the Order
they realized in fullest measure the ideal of St. Dominic. The three
dominant elements in the spirit of the Order
are preaching, science and catholicism; and these three found concrete
expression in the missionary activities upon which the Friars Preachers
entered with such divine enthusiasm from the very first years of their
existence. The work of the missions was, of course, essentially a work
of preaching -- patient, tireless, hazardous preaching. The applause of
the multitude and the admiration of the scholars, which might prompt
the zeal of those who preached in the great cities of the older
Christian nations, found no place in the motives of those who journeyed
to the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel at the peril of their
lives to those who knew not Christ, or knew Him but to hate Him. For
the success of their work it was necessary that they be familiar with
the language of those to whom they preached; that they be versed in the
errors of the unbelievers, and in the science of Christ with which to
refute them. Not all of those among whom the missionaries labored were
barbarians. Some, indeed, such as the Arabians and Jews, were in touch
with all the intellectual movements of the times, as well as deeply
versed in their own schools of divinity and philosophy. Consequently,
it was incumbent upon the missionaries, if they would effectively
represent the cause of Christ, that they be not wanting in that science
which St. Dominic had adopted as one of the most effective weapons
against the enemies of Christ. The catholic or universal element of
Dominicanism found expression in the world-wide character which the
missionary activities of the Order assumed from its very beginfling.
Indeed, one of the most wonderful things in the beginnings of the
Dominican Order was the
astounding rapidity with which the Friars Preachers spread their
apostolic missionaries over the face of the entire world, as it was
known in those days.

The one dominant thought in the mind of St. Dominic was the missions.
Impelled by a charity towards men that was world-embracing, he longed
to carry the light of Christ's evangel to those who sat in darkness
even in the remotest parts of the earth. Long before he conceived the
idea of instituting a religious order, he had planned that he himself
should be a missionary. It was the missionary needs of the Church in
Europe and beyond its confines that suggested to him the plan of
founding an order of apostolic preachers which should perpetuate his
own missionary labors and expand them to the ends of the earth. The
only bond that bound together his little band of followers before they
received the approbation of the Holy See was their common missionary
interests. Even in those days, so full of apostolic zeal and personal
hazard, St. Dominic did not abandon his long-cherished hope of one day
carrying the light of the Gospel to the heathen. "When we have
established our Order," he said to one of his followers, "we shall go
out to evangelize the Cuman Tartars."

In the light of these circumstances it can hardly be a matter of wonder
that the first activities of the Order took the form of missionary
labors. In the very last year of St. Dominic's life Paul of Hungary
founded a province in his native land, on the frontier of the country
inhabited by those very Cuman Tartars whom the holy patriarch had
himself so earnestly longed to convert. The members of this, one of the
last two provinces established in
the lifetime of St. Dominic, immediately entered with holy ardor upon
the task of evangelizing these fierce nomadic tribes. Their efforts
were ultimately attended by entire success. Thus, the cherished dream
of the founder was vicariously accomplished by his zealous
missionaries. Simultaneously the Gospel was preached by the same
fearless missionaries to the people of the Balkans, and the reign of
Christ firmly established among them.

In the earliest years of their missionary activity the Dominicans
extended their apostolic zeal to the outposts of civilization. In 1237,
the Province of the Holy Land was prosecuting its missionary labors in
Asia with great success. In that year its provincial reported to
Gregory IX that wonderful results had been attained among Jacobites,
Nestorians, Maronites, and Saracens. Throughout the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries these missionaries continued to expand their field
of labor till they had reached Bagdad and India. They were the first
Christian missionaries to plant the cross in China.

In 1330 the missions in Armenia, which had been inaugurated towards the
middle of the previous century were firmly established throughout the
country. From the ranks of the Preachers the first ruler of the Church
in that country was taken in the person of Blessed Bartholomew of
Bologna, Archbishop of Naksivan. So successfully did the missionaries
combat the Greek schismatics that they practically ceased to exist, and
the Armenians in ever-increasing numbers returned to the pale of Holy
Church. According to the ancient Christian traditions of the country,
seven dioceses were founded at that time whose bishops were taken
from the ranks of the Dominican brethren. Not even the triumph of
Mohammedanism could dispossess them of their chosen fields of labor,
and against great odds they continued to contest valiantly the empire
of souls with the followers of Islam.

No less successful were the labors of the Dominicans in Persia. Under
John XXII, Franco of Perugia was made Archbishop of Sultana, and the
creation of six other dioceses, all of them governed by bishops chosen
from the Order, raised him to the dignity of a metropolitan. Perhaps
his most important individual conquest was the conversion of the
Primate of Armenia, whom he brought into union with and submission to
the See of Rome. So rapidly did the missions of the Order in Asia grow
that in 1312 the Master General organized them into a special
congregation called the "Friars Pilgrims," which was recruited from all
the other provinces of the Institute.

But even before these missions in the East began to produce their
unfailing harvests of souls, the Friars Preachers had directed their
attention to the missionary fields of Eastern and Northern Europe.
Among the most apostolic of the laborers in this vineyard of the Lord
was St. Hyacinth, whom St. Dominic himself admitted to the Order. His
zeal was boundless, and while his first missionary efforts were
directed to the conversion of the countries lying to the north and east
of France, they ultimately extended to half the then known world.
Journeying north from Rome with his brother Ceslaus, to whom also St.
Dominic had given the habit of the Order, he founded as he went the
Province of Germany and organized that of Poland. Under his leadership
the brethren in Prussia and Lithuania materially advanced the work of
civilization which had been inaugurated by the Teutonic Knights.
Bohemia, the Russias and Livonia were the next scenes of his truly
apostolic labors. In Scandinavia he established a province of the
Order, which in its turn evangelized the arctic regions of Greenland
two hundred years before America was discovered. Even the shores of the
Black Sea were not beyond the reach of his apostolic zeal, and along
these he made his way to the Grecian Archipelago. Turning towards
Central Asia, it is said he even penetrated into Thibet and China.
Wherever he went he left behind him convents of his brethren to witness
and perpetuate his missionary activities. Everywhere countless souls
fell under the spell of his eloquence, his sanctity and tireless zeal.
Under his tutelage they pledged their fealty to the Christ whom he had
made known to them and to his Vicar at Rome.

While St. Hyacinth thus extended his apostolate over Europe and Asia,
Ceslaus, in every way worthy of his apostolic brother, labored in the
same holy cause among the Bohemians, Silesians and Poles. In 1225 the
first Spanish Dominicans preached the Gospel in Morocco and in the same
year the superior of the mission, Father Dominic, was consecrated first
Bishop of that place. In 1258 the Order evangelized the Ruthenians,
while at the same time St. Raymond of Pennafort established missionary
colleges at Tunis and Tripoli.

The Fathers of the English Province were not a whit behind their
brethren of the older provinces
in extending the boundaries of Christ's kingdom upon earth. To
the apostolic zeal of their Latin confrères many of them added
administrative ability of a high order, which led to their being chosen
to rule over the newly-established dioceses in their missionary
districts. In this manner Henry of England became an archbishop of
Russia in 1244 and converted the King of Litten in Livonia. In 1248
Father Thomas administered the bishopric of Abo in Finland. The diocese
of Ebron in Palestine was ruled over by Father Geoffrey. Father William
was appointed Archbishop of Rages, and Father Belets Archbishop of
Sultana in 1403. As early as 1330 Father Richard was made Bishop of
Lesser Tartary. In 1468 Father Bennett was elected to the See of
Panido, in Roumania.

Thus the Friars Preachers in thousands pushed on to the remotest
outposts of civilization, bearing the message of salvation to those who
knew not Christ nor His holy Church. In 1253 -- that is, thirty-two
years after the death of St. Dominic -- Innocent IV, writing to the
Friars Preachers, addressed them in these significant terms: "To our
dearly beloved sons, the Friars Preachers, preaching in the lands of
the Saracens, Greeks, Bulgars, Cumans, Ethiopians, Syrians, Goths,
Jacobites, Armenians, Indians, Tartars, Hungarians and the other
heathen peoples of the East, health and apostolic benediction." Thus
the Vicar of Christ bears eloquent testimony to the far-flung labors of
the children of St. Dominic in the very infancy of their Order. Their
activities and their triumphs recall the days of the Apostles and
constitute one of the most remarkable achievements in the
ever-wonderful history of the Catholic Church.
Nor were the older nations neglected for the benefit of the oriental
missions. The white-robed missionaries penetrated into every corner of
Europe, combating heresy and stimulating by their eloquence and
austerity the flagging spirit of religion. For twenty years St. Vincent
Ferrer, to cite but one of them, preached throughout Western Europe,
exercising over his auditors a spell that was but little short of
miraculous. A multitude of penitents, sometimes to the number of ten
thousand, followed him in his apostolic wanderings, unwilling to lose
the benefit of his spiritual direction. Waldenses and Catharini alike
fell under the charm of his eloquence and cheerfully made their
submission to the Holy See. But it was in his native Spain that his
greatest triumphs were achieved. Here the number of his Jewish converts
alone was twenty-five thousand; and to them he added thousands of
Moors.

The Portuguese conquests in Africa and the East Indies opened up a new
field of missionary opportunity which the Dominicans were not slow to
turn to the advantage of God's honor and glory. As early as the end of
the fifteenth century Portuguese Dominicans reached the west coast of
Africa. Later, they accompanied the explorers around the Cape of Good
Hope to establish their missionary enterprise on the east coast of the
African continent. From there they eventually worked their way in quest
of souls into India, Ceylon, Siam and Malacca.

When it seemed in the last quarter of the fifteenth century that every
country of the world had been reached by the heroic apostles of the
Order, and that the pioneer labors of the previous three centuries
must now give way to the less hazardous task of organization and
development, Columbus added to the then known world the two magnificent
continents of the Western Hemisphere. His glowing stories of the New
World's immeasurable extent, its wealth, fertility, its innumerable
opportunities excited in the venturesome souls of the nation that had
financed his enterprise, dazzling dreams of conquest, power and wealth.
But for the children of St. Dominic it had another meaning -- the
spiritual conquest of its teeming millions for Christ. Enraptured, they
contemplated the opportunity of traversing its vast distances; of
bearing the first glad tidings of salvation to its benighted peoples;
of lifting them up from the darkness of heathen ignorance and
superstition to the clear, white light of God's eternal truth; of
planting the cross in every settlement and center of human habitation,
and of thus eshblishing the spiritual sovereignty of the Church of
Christ.

The discovery of the New World had a special significance for the Order
of St. Dominic; for it was owing to the assistance of Diego de Deza and
other Dominicans of Salamanca that Columbus succeeded in convincing the
sovereigns of Spain of the feasibility of his plan. Columbus himself
generously acknowledged this when he said that it was to the Dominican,
Diego de Deza, who made possible his voyage of discovery, that the
sovereigns of Spain owed their possession of America.

In 1510 the first band of Dominican missionaries landed on the sod of
the New World and immediately plunged with ardor and zeal into the work
of winning it for Christ. With extraordinary rapidity
they extended their labors from the West Indies to the mainland, and
across the continent of South America to the Pacific, which, in turn,
they crossed eventually to extend their saving mission to the
Philippines, China and Japan.

A band of twelve missionaries inaugurated the work of evangelizing the
natives of New Spain in 1526, and so greatly did the work prosper that
before long their foundations had reached the number of one hundred,
all centers of apostolic activity. By 1540 the Order had erected sixty
houses and churches in New Grenada alone. This was the field in which
St. Louis Bertrand, undoubtedly the greatest of South American
missionaries, began his zealous labor for souls in 1562. A brief
description of the efforts of this great saint will help us to
understand the quality and extent of the work of the Dominican
missionaries, of which work they are typical, on the continent of South
America.

From Cartagena, the first scene of his labors, St. Louis went to
Panama, where, we are told, in an incredibly short time he converted
six thousand of the natives. Tubera was his next scene of conquest, and
here his heroic zeal resulted in the conversion of the entire
community, to the number of ten thousand. And the marvellous part of it
is that all these neophytes were thoroughly instructed before they were
permitted to enter the Church. Cipacoa and Paluato yielded a harvest of
souls not less than that of Tubera. At St. Martha fifteen thousand
converts were the reward of his tireless labors. While at St. Martha a
tribe of fifteen hundred Indians came to him in a body from Paluato to
beg for baptism, which they had refused to accept while he labored
among them. Teneriffe, Mompax and several of the West India Islands
were in turn visited by the saint in his never-ending quest for souls,
and yielded rich harvests under the spell of his sanctity and tireless
zeal. The bull of his canonization asserts that to facilitate the work
of converting the natives he was miraculously endowed with the gift of
tongues.

But the name of St. Louis Bertrand is not the only one that looms large
in the history of the Dominican missions of South America. On the
northern coast of this continent, forty years before the arrival of the
saint, Las Casas became a Dominican, and with redoubled fervor and
energy continued his valiant championship of the Indians. In another
chapter we shall give proper consideration to the great Dominican and
his heroic labors in behalf of the aborigines.

Some idea of the number of Dominican missionaries in the New World, and
the far-reaching scope of their labors, may be inferred from the rapid
growth of the Order in this new field of missionary labor. The Province
of the Holy Cross, including San Domingo and the neighboring islands,
the first of the Western Hemisphere, was established in 1530. This was
quickly followed in 1532 by the Province of St. James in Mexico. In
1539 the Province of St. John the Baptist in Peru was founded. Twelve
years later the Provinces of St. Vincent in Guatemala and St. Antoninus
in New Grenada were called into existence. The year 1580 saw the
Province of St. Catherine in Peru established; while in 1592, just a
century after the discovery of America, the Province of St. Lawrence,
in Chili, which numbered over
forty convents, was founded. From South America they went to the
Philippines and thence to China, which they entered in 1590, and eleven
years later extended their missionary labors to Japan. To the ordinary
student of history it was perhaps but a fortuitous circumstance that
the New World was discovered and opened up to the courageous
missionaries of the Catholic Church only a few decades before Luther
began his career of protestation and subversion. But the one who sees in
the seemingly tragic and contradictory events of life the harmonious
elements of a great plan, conceived in eternity and executed, age after
age, by the hand of Divine Providence, the discovery of America by a
Catholic nation must appear as a God-given opportunity for the Church
to recoup in the New World the losses she was to sustain in the Old by
the rebellion and defection of so many of her children under the blind
leadership of the embittered and vengeful heresiarch. What is true of
the Church in general is especially true of the Order of Friars
Preachers. The revolt of Luther cost the Order six provinces and
hundreds of convents. In that selfsame fateful sixteenth century the
Order founded seven new provinces and hundreds of convents in America.
Truly the finger of God was here!

That the splendid qualities of heroic zeal and selfsacrifice which
characterized the pioneer missionaries of the Order in the first
centuries of its existence have not in our own day departed from its
ranks is witnessed by its many undertakings in this field of religious
effort. To the care of the Dominicans have been intrusted the missions
in Mesopotamia and Kurdistan, and they furnish the incumbents of these archiepiscopal sees. The Belgian Dominicans are
laboring heroically in the Congo. To the care of the Dutch Dominicans
have been confided the missions of Porto Rico and Curacao. The Spanish
and French provinces furnish the missionaries for Brazil, Chili and
Ecuador. For several centuries before the Spanish-American War the
missionary province of the Philippines devoted itself to the
evangelization of those islands; and of five vicariates in China and
Tonquin. This province is made up of Spaniards, to the number of six
hundred. Their virtual expulsion and the consequent loss of faith to
thousands of the Philippinos is one of the saddest chapters in the
missionary history of the Church.

We cannot, perhaps more fittingly conclude this subject than by quoting
the following beautiful tribute paid to the missionaries of the Order
by Mgr. Vaughan in his splendid "Life of St. Thomas":

"Within twenty years after St. Dominic's death the Gospel had been
preached in almost every country. * * * During the Middle Ages the
pulses of the mighty heart of the great Order were felt throughout the
whole of the known world, from the northwest coast of Africa to the
great water courses of Asia; from Fez and Morocco as far as Greenland.
A party of Dutch sailors was struck with astonishment, when, at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, touching on the coast of
Greenland, they found that men clothed in the white wool of St. Dominic
had been preaching, praying and studying in that inhospitable region
for upwards of four hundred years. It was through Dominican influence
at the court of Spain that Columbus obtained the ships in
which he made the discovery of the New World; and they were Dominicans
who followed upon the footsteps of the enterprising subjugators of that
vast continent and planted the standard of the cross wherever the
others had been victorious with the sword. At the commencement of the
sixteenth century they colonized the East and West Indies. In 1550, in
the Peninsula of Malacca and the adjacent islands the Dominicans had
eighteen convents and made sixty thousand converts. Then they
penetrated into Siam and were the first Christian missionaries who set
foot in China, where they established schools and built churches. They
had already settled in San Domingo, Mexico and the Floridas. In 1526
they sent twelve brothers to New Spain where they soon had a hundred
houses and convents. In 1540, they possessed in New Grenada sixty
houses and churches. In Chili they had forty convents. The Philippine
Isles, Mozambique, and the eastern coast of Africa were under Dominican
influence, while at Manila and Lima they established universities for
the education of the higher classes. Within a hundred years (1234-1334)
they could number thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy martyrs."

Even though the concluding sentence of the previous paragraph had not
prepared one for it, it might easily have been inferred that these
great conquests of souls had not been accomplished without the
sacrifice of thousands of the heroic missionaries upon the altar of
truth. Plunging, as they did, into the very heart of heathendom where
there were neither ambassadors nor consuls from home to whom they might
look for protection, they knew
full well that they must fertilize the land of their labors with their
life's blood if they would gather the harvest for Christ. It was with
this expectation and this longing that they entered upon their sublime
mission. Indeed, it would have been strange had it been otherwise,
since their holy founder had constantly yearned to give up his life for
the Faith. We recall that when his life was threatened at Carcassonne
he joyously approached the place where the would-be assassins lay in
wait, in the hope that the outpouring of his blood might bring the
blessing of God upon the labors of his companions.

From the very beginnng of its career even to the present day the Order
has furnished a multitude of white-robed martyrs who heroically laid
down their lives in testimony of the truth they preached. Every ten
years since its foundation, as a modern writer tells us, it has offered
victims on the altar of truth. Even in his own day St. Dominic had the
happiness of seeing hundreds of his faithful missionaries in Hungary
measuring up to the supreme test of martyrdom. In a single massacre two
hundred of them gave up their lives to witness the Faith of Christ.
Some time after this, in 1242, Blessed Paul, the founder of the
Hungarian Province, together with ninety of his brethren, laid down his
life for the conversion of those among whom he labored. Many of the
brethren died at the hands of the Albigenses, among whom the missionary
career of the Order was inaugurated. Eighteen years later Blessed Sadoc
and forty-seven of his community were martyred at Sandomir, in Poland,
as they chanted the "Hail, Holy Queen," which they finished
before the throne of God in heaven. In 1261 two hundred Friars
Preachers fell beneath the sword of the Mussulman. As St. Peter Martyr
lay dying from the blow of a heretic's dagger, he doubly witnessed the
faith within him by writing on the ground with the blood which flowed
from his wounds these words: "I believe in one God" (Credo in unum
Deum). A general chapter held at Valencia drew up a list of 13,370
members of the Order who had been martyred between 1234 and 1335 -- a
single century! In the sixteenth century the number had reached the
stupendous figure of 26,000.

St. John of Gorcum and his companions gave up their lives in Holland in
defence of the dogmas of the Church. In England, Scotland and Ireland
the blood of Dominican martyrs was poured forth in copious streams
during the Reformation. It is recorded of Father Barry, the Dominican
prior of Cashel, in Ireland, that the captain of the soldiers sent to
execute him, strongly impressed with the friar's holy and noble
bearing, offered him his life if he would fling off his habit. The
heroic Dominican replied: "This habit is for me the livery of Christ
and an emblem of His passion; it is the uniform of the military service
I owe Him. Since my youth I have worn it; I will not give it up in my
old age." The fire was then lighted, and as the flames enveloped him
the head which would not bend before the altars of Henry VIII fell in
full devotion to the Faith of Jesus Christ.

The soil of Japan was also fructified with the blood of Dominican
missionaries. In the seventeenth century one hundred and three of the
brethren received the crown of martyrdom. As they
stood before their executioners, William Courtet and Michael Orazata
cried out: "O Jesus, it is sweet to suffer for Thee! Queen of the Most
Holy Rosary, pray for us!"

Even in the nineteenth century the Order has not failed to increase the
number of those glorious heroes who were not afraid to give testimony
of Christ with their life's blood. We can find space for only the most
distinguished of the valiant missionaries who were martyred in Tonquin:
Bishop Ignatius Delgado died in prison July 21, 1838; Bishop Dominic
Henares, his coadjutor, was beheaded July 25, 1838; Father Joseph
Fernandez, Vicar Provincial, was beheaded July 24, 1838; Bishop Joseph
Mary Diaz was beheaded July 20, 1857; Bishop Melchior Garcia san Pedro
was cut into pieces on July 28, 1858, and in the midst of his agony
continued to render thanks to God for the opportunity to die for Him;
Bishop Jerome Hermosilla and Bishop Valentine Berrio-Ochoa were
beheaded November 1, 1861. The latter were beatified in 1906 by Pope
Pius X. Eight years after the death of these devoted apostles in the
Orient, five of their brethren were shot down in the crowded streets of
Paris by order of the Commune for no other reason than their devotion
to the Faith.

This brief sketch of the martyred apostles of the Order is eloquently
suggestive of the heroic spirit of the devoted missionaries who labored
so disinterestedly to bring the nations to the knowledge of Christ, and
the immeasurable sacrifices they were prepared to make for God and His
Church. The full recital of their sufferings contained in the
voluminous records of the different provinces is undoubtedly the most glorious chapter in all Dominican history.

Saints and Mystics

A certain lack of initiative in promoting the canonization of its
saints has been traditional among the Friars Preachers from the time
that the canonization of St. Dominic was first mooted, shortly after
his death. To the friends of the Order who importuned them to present
his cause to the Holy See the first Dominicans replied that the heroic
quality of the founder's sanctity was known to God and that was
sufficient. It was only when the Holy Father himself expressed the wish
that they should inaugurate the process preparatory to his elevation to
the altars of the Church that they became active with that end in view.
Even a few decades ago when the last of their heroic brothers were
solemnly beatified by the Church, it required a special exhortation
from the Holy See to stir the authorities of the Order into action in
behalf of their saintly brethren. To the same indifference to public
recognition is due the irreparable loss of the history of many
wonderful missionary achievements. So long as they labored tirelessly
for God and the salvation of souls, and willingly died for His name's
sake, it mattered not to them whether their names and the details of
their apostolic work were inscribed on the pages of history for the
admiration and applause of men. Hence it is that during seven hundred
years but ten of the Friars Preachers and four of the Dominican
sisterhood have been solemnly canonized by the Church. To these,
however, may be added the names of more
than two hundred others who have been solemnly beatified.

It is not the spirit of the Dominican Order to cast all its subjects in
one mould and thus produce a monotonously uniform type of religious. It
is rather the genius of its spiritual formation not only to preserve
the individuality of its members but to develop it to the utmost on a
solid foundation of the Dominican spirit. Consequently, whatever
natural talents or inclinations the student may have, whether they be
ecclesiastical or secular, are developed with a view to turning them to
the service of religion. Originality and initiative are encouraged
rather than suppressed; for to these qualities in no little degree is
attributable the enduring good wrought by the Friars Preachers. Thus,
while all possess the common qualities that make up the Dominican
spirit, each gives it expression according to to the manner of his own
personality. It is largely owing to this policy that the works of the
Order have been so varied and its interests have reached out to so many
spheres of action.

The same striking diversity of personality is to be found
distinguishing saint from saint and characterizing the work of each. A
modern writer thus strikes off the characteristic qualities of some of
the Dominican saints: "St. Dominic, with his imperial spirit of
government, as Cardinal Newman calls it; St. Hyacinth, the adventurous
Knight of Christ; St. Peter, the intrepid controversialist; St. Thomas,
the calm, dispassionate theologian; St. Antoninus, the gentle,
fatherly archbishop; St. Pius, the uncompromising champion of
Christendom; St. Louis Bertrand, the missionary whose
view of life was always overshadowed by sadness; St. Catherine, the
idealist and practical mystic -- all are types that charm, yet in what
divers ways." St. Dominic united within himself the apparently
contradictory qualities of the fiery apostle and uncompromising
champion of orthodoxy, on the one hand, and on the other those of the
tolerant, broadminded practical legislator. The Angel of the Schools
lived the same life as his spiritual father, St. Dominic, fought the
same fight and served as effectively the same ends, without ever
leaving his cell except to journey from university to university. While
St. Dominic combated thousands of his enemies face to face, St. Thomas
combated hundreds of thousands of them with the arms of reason on the
field of the intellect, and combats them no less successfully today,
six hundred years after his death. It is peculiar to the Dominican
Order that in its most distinguished lights science and sanctity have
been united in a preeminent degree. In truth, its greatest scholars
have been its greatest saints. Without further reference to St. Dominic
or St. Thomas, we may point out that St. Raymond was one of the
greatest canonists in the history of the Church. St. Hyacinth was a
Doctor of Law and Divinity of the University of Bologna at a time when
only those of rare intellectual distinction could aspire to such a
degree. St. Peter Martyr, made general inquisitor by Gregory IX, was
the destroyer of the Manichean heresy throughout Italy. St. Antoninus
attained fame as a theological writer and economist. St. Vincent Ferrer
discharged the duties of professor of theology at Valencia, confessor to
the Queen of Aragon and legate a latere.
Pius V was for sixteen years professor of theology and philosophy. And
if St. Louis Bertrand and St. John Gorcum did not measure up to the
greatest of the Order's intellectual celebrities, neither were they
destitute of intellectual gifts of more than ordinary character. Enough
has been said in other chapters concerning the intellectual endowments
of Blessed Albert the Great to rank him among the greatest scholars of
all time; and his sanctity was but little, if any, inferior to the
greatness of his intellect. St. Rose was not the only member of the
Order in the Western Hemisphere to win the formal recognition of the
Church for sanctity of an eminent degree. The virtues of Martin Porres,
a half-caste Indian, and John Massias, both of the Province of Peru,
who humbly served in the ranks of the lay-brothers, also received the
formal recognition of the Church.

While the Dominicans conferred a priceless service upon the Church by
defending Catholic orthodoxy against the aberrations of darkened
intellects with the luminous reasoning of its great doctors, at the
same time it provided spiritual food for the hearts of the people in
the devotional writings of its great mystics, Eckhart, Tauler, Suso,
St. Catherine and Savonarola. Indeed, the fame of the mystics of the
Order is more generally known throughout the universal Church even than
that of its dogmatic theologians and apologists. It is not confined to
the knowledge of scholars and ecclesiastics, but is familiar to the
religious of every congregation of the Church, as well as to thousands
of the devout laity.

One of the most famous schools of mysticism in the Order was that
founded in Germany by Meister
Eckhart. St. Thomas of Aquin and Meister Eckhart, though they
considered the matter from different points of view, were probably the
greatest medieval authorities on the mystical life. The latter, born
about 1260, is universally recognized as the father of German
mysticism, and by many as the greatest of the German mystics. A
profound theologian, a lucid philosopher, an eloquent preacher, a
successful professor of theology at the universities of Paris,
Strasburg and Cologne, an efficient administrator in the offices of
prior, vicar-general and provincial, he was anything but an unpractical
dreamer. Indeed, it was because of these many accomplishments and
fields of experience that he was able to found a school of mysticism
characterized by sanity and soundness, which even so great an apostle
as the Dominican John Tauler -- a hater of all forms of exaggeration --
could approve and embrace. Another illustrious disciple of Meister
Eckhart was Blessed Henry Suso, who might be called the poet of the
school of German mysticism. These men were not recluses or visionaries
dreaming their lives away in the fruitless meditations of undisciplined
and vacant minds. Well trained and instructed in the efficient schools
of the Order, their mysticism was founded upon the definitive and
positive theology of the Church and directed to practical ends. We have
seen the practical character of the life-work of Eckhart, the founder
of the German school. Tauler was no less practical. As a preacher it
was said of him that "he set the whole world aflame by his fiery
tongue." With the facility of a true Dominican he passed from
contemplation to preaching, and, his preaching finished, he resumed
his meditations. A kindred spirit was Blessed Henry Suso, to whom
Bellarmine referred as "a preacher eminent for piety and learning." The
celebrated Louis of Blois spoke of him as "the zealous defender of the
Catholic faith, whose writings are not merely orthodox but even
divine." As contemplative, teacher, writer and preacher, he exercised a
wonderful influence over the souls of those with whom he came in
contact. His "Little Book of Eternal Wisdom" was one of the most
popular works on mysticism in the Middle Ages, and in its English
translation continues in our own day to inspire souls with an
ever-increasing love of God. Both Tauler and Suso were contemporaries
and disciples of Meister Eckhart.

Among Italian mystics the names of Jerome Sayonarola, Giordano da
Rivalta, Domenico Cavalca and Jacopo Passavanti are to be found. Not
only were they famous for their mastery of Christian mysticism but for
the dignity of style in which they gave it expression.

Sociology

It is customary for the irreligious social reformer to assail the
religious organizations of the Church as being non-producers; as though
material productiveness were the sole test of social or economic
utility. Under such a test some of the most generous contributors to
social progress and civilization would have to be branded as parasites
on the body politic. It is not they who have turned out the commodities
of trade with hand and tool, but they who have labored in the workshop
of their fecund intellects that have shaped and accelerated the
progress
of mankind. Such were the priceless contributions of St. Dominic and
his Friars to society, apart from their purely religious activity.
Whatever pertained to the betterment of the human race enlisted their
interest and earnest efforts. Thus, Balmez, the great Spanish
philosopher and historian, tells us that "if the illustrious Spaniard,
Dominic de Guzman, and the wonderful man of Assisi did not occupy a
place on our altars, there to receive the veneration of the faithful
for their eminent sanctity, they would deserve to have statues raised
to them by the gratitude of society and humanity."

With divine enthusiasm, and actuated only by love of their fellow men,
they labored with might and main to eradicate the deep-seated ills
which kept Europe in a state of chronic belligerency, and made
wide-spread poverty a permanent dweller in the land. They were tireless
and most successful advocates of peace and implacable opponents of
wanton war. They organized societies to promote the ends of peace and
to create a sentiment hostile to the perpetual conflicts waged by
unscrupulous princes to further their own selfish ends. Oderic
Raynaldus graphically describes the crusade of protest led by Blessed
Ventura of Bergamo against the nobility and tyrants of Italy who were
drenching the land with the blood of their fellow countrymen in
personal and purposeless quarrels. Ten thousand penitents, whom he had
persuaded to abandon their ancient feuds and animosities, were formed
by him into a vast peace society, and these he led in pious pilgrimage
to Rome to seal on the tomb of the Apostles their vows of life-long
amity and concord. Through the different cities of Europe they journeyed towards their goal in perfect order, chanting the praises of
God and crying, "Peace, Penance and Mercy!" Throughout the entire
journey they were a source of edification to all who beheld them. To
many a strife-torn town through which they passed they brought peace
and concord and a wholesome abhorrence of senseless war.

No less famous as a promoter of peace was John of Vicenza, podesta
(mayor) of Verona, who captivated all Lombardy with the eloquence of
his preaching. Concerning him a medieval historian says: "Never since
the time of our Lord Jesus Christ were there seen such multitudes
gathered to hear this friar preach peace. He had such power over all
minds that everywhere he was suffered to arrange the terms of
reconciliation. * * * Families and states sought his counsel, and not
without profit. So great was the confidence in his judgment that
prisons were opened at his word and their inmates restored to liberty.
Family feuds which had endured for centuries succumbed to his
peacemaking efforts." Governors, kings and pontiffs availed themselves
of his great wisdom and sound judgment to promote the ends of blessed
peace. So complete was the confidence of the people in the good
judgment of the Dominicans that many of the cities of Lombardy placed
their affairs and their statutes in the hands of the Friars Preachers
for correction and rearrangement when necessary. The pontificates of
the Dominican Popes Innocent V and Benedict XI were conspicuous for
their achievements in promoting the peace of Europe and especially of
Italy. Innocent V effected a reconciliation between Guelphs and
Ghibellines in Italy and established peace between Pisa and Lucca. Cardinal Frangipani,the Pope's
representative,became known throughout Italy as the Prince of Peace.
Benedict XI, while Master General of the Order, was made a member of a
most important embassy which had for its purpose the arranging of an
armistice between Philip IV of France and the English King Edward I. As
Pope, he established peace between the Papacy and the French court.

Not a few of the great reforms accomplished by the Dominicans were due
to the fact that so many of the Friars Preachers acted as confessors to
the reigning families of Europe. During the Middle Ages the French
monarchy sought most of its confessors in the ranks of the Order. The
dukes of Burgundy and the kings of England employed them in a similar
capacity. The kings of Castile and of Spain invariably chose their
spiritual advisers from the ranks of the Friars, as did the kings of
Portugal. Consequently, many channels of great influence were open to
them through which they directed their benevolent efforts for the
amelioration of the many distressing conditions prevalent in medieval
Europe. The thought of being of service to the bodies as well as to the
souls of men occupied the minds of the greatest of the Order's saints
and scholars. Thus, Albert the Great and the Englishman, John of St.
Giles, a former professor of medicine at the University of Paris, made
exhaustive researches in medicine, herbs, plants, etc., for the purpose
of discovering new elements of medicinal value. St. Vincent Ferrer
founded orphanages in almost every city in Spain, and multiplied
hospitals throughout Spain and Brittany. Not only did
the Dominicans serve the normal needs of afflicted humanity by the
establishment of hospitals throughout Europe, but in the fearful
epidemics that scourged the Middle Ages they ministered in person, like
their illustrious brothers, St. Antoninus and St. Louis Bertrand, to
the plague-stricken of their respective cities. In such a crisis, St.
Antoninus, Florence's most beloved archbishop, was to be seen leading a
mule laden with everything that he could find to ease the sufferings
and alleviate the distress of those who had fallen victims of the
plague.

Of St. Antoninus Pius II truly said that "the hands of the poor were
the depository of all that he possessed." He converted his palace into
a common lodging house and divided up his gardens into plats in which
the poor might grow their vegetables. One of his most effective and
enduring works was the institution of a society, known as the
Buonosnini di San Martino, for befriending the poor. This society,
founded in 1441 in the Dominican Convent of St. Mark, was made up of
twelve of the leading men of Florence. To them St. Antoninus announced
his plan of dividing the city into twelve districts and assigning one
of them to each district for the purpose of ministering to the poor in
their district. The alms collected were not to be invested nor spent on
office-rent, salaries, investigations or the keeping of records, but
were to be paid out directly and immediately to the deserving poor,
especially to those who were ashamed to make known their wants. It was
an admirably planned and effectively executed work, and its continuance
for over four hundred years proves the value of its service. His plan
for the
reformation of the morals of Florence must have seemed to any one not
familiar with his capacity for achievement, to be the dream of a
visionary. Yet before long it had been so fully realized that
blasphemy, gambling, usury and other disorders had become entirely a
thing of the past. So completely did he heal the feuds and quarrels of
its citizens that Pope Pius could say that "all enmities were banished
out of the city."

Among all the great reformers given to the Church none stands out so
heroically or towers so high as the famous Florentine prior,
Savonarola. From his earliest youth he cherished high ideals and gave
evidence of the strength of character necessary to realize them. At the
suggestion of the famous scholar, Picus Mirandola, he was invited to
Florence by Lorenzo de Medici. Thus were brought into contact, and
eventually into conflict, two characters as different in their tastes,
aims and manner of life as two personalities could possibly be. It was
not long before Savonarola was elected prior of St. Marks, an office
which carried with it considerable authority and influence in even the
civic affairs of the city. At the time of his death the community at
St. Mark's numbered two hundred religious and eighty novices, among
whom were to be found statesmen, scholars and former courtiers. So
great was the number attracted to the religious life by the preaching
and example of Savonarola that the Convent of St. Mark had to be
enlarged to accommodate them. Florence was at this time the
fountain-head of the Renaissance. The Neo-paganism of the Humanists
flourished here in every department of the arts. Through the channels
of government as well as of
art and literature it poured its corrupting poison into the hearts of
the people. In the form of pagan art it had even invaded the sanctuary.
Debauchery threw off its natural concomitants of darkness and secrecy
and brazenly exhibited itself in public places. The standards of public
decency had fallen to such a deplorable degree that the morals of even
the school children were in grave danger of being corrupted. Such was
the condition of affairs that con fronted Savonarola on his entrance
into Florence. This saintly character, who lived only for God's honor
and glory and the salvation of souls, immediately entered upon the
herculean task of cleaning out the Augean stables of Florence. From the
pulpit of St. Mark's he lashed the corruption of the people with fiery
eloquence. In his holy crusade he was no respecter of persons, and
neither dignity of office nor rank nor station served to shield the
guilty from his burning castigation. None more than Lorenzo de Medici,
the tyrant of Florence and the abettor of its immorality, felt the
weight of his denunciation. The fact that he was a generous patron of
the convent of St. Mark did not save him from the condemnation of its
fearless prior. In his sermons Savonarola attacked the false
conceptions and the degrading use of art which so powerfully
contributed to the decline of morals, and vividly set forth in
opposition to its revolting naturalism the true ideal of spiritual
beauty. He extolled the civilizing and Christianizing influence of true
art and vehemently protested against its prostitution to the ends of
sensualism and naturalism. So irrefutable were his statements and so
moving the eloquence with which they were expressed that many of the
artists
of Florence brought to him their objectionable paintings and destroyed
them in his presence, promising never again to offend against the true
spirit and purpose of art. Many of them, captivated by his holiness of
life and his sublime conception of beauty, entered the Order to
consecrate their talents directly and exclusively to God. Among these
was the famous painter, Fra Bartolomeo, the instructor of Raphael.

No less effective was his crusade against the laxity of morals among
the pleasure-loving Florentines. So profound was the influence of his
campaign against the revolting sensualism of his age that even the
school children petitioned the government to protect them against the
unclean spirit of the times. The public carnivals held on special
occasions, which were orgies of debauchery that outraged public
decency, became religious pageants depicting eternal truths.
Improprieties of dress, suggesting those of our own day, were abolished
and conformity to the standards of Christian modesty restored. In the
reform carnival of 1497 all the vanities of the sensuous Florentines
and their adjuncts of sin were gathered together in the Piazza dei
Signon and burned. Priceless tapestries, defiled by unclean
representations, paintings and sculpture that outraged modesty, books
that reeked with indecency and the poison of false teaching, cards and
dice that squandered the earnings of the poor, false hair, paints,
powders and other artificialities with which women concealed their
physical deficiencies, masks, costumes and other things pertaining to
the pagan carnivals -- all were thrown by their penitent owners upon
the colossal pyramid which was
quickly given over to the flames. Even the form of government was
changed to meet the political and economic teachings of Savonarola and
took the form of a theocratic democracy whose supreme ruler was Christ,
and whose social and political institutions and organic law were firmly
founded on the teachings of the Saviour. Such was Savonarola, the great
Dominican reformer, whose tragic end proved the sincerity of his
purpose and his unconquerable devotion to the cause of Catholic reform.

There is no more inspiring story in the history of the settlement of
the New World than the Order's championship of the rights of the
American Indian. A race by no means robust, and unaccustomed to toil,
they fell easy victims to the Spanish explorers' insatiable greed and
lust for power. To this fact Prescott, by no means addicted to the
praise of Catholics, bears generous testimony. "The brethren of St.
Dominic," he says, "stood forth as the avowed champions of the Indians
on all occasions and showed themselves devoted to the cause of freedom
in the New World." So well known was their sympathy for and efforts in
behalf of the Indians that the most illustrious of all their defenders,
Bartholomew de Las Casas, joined the Dominicans in order that he might
consecrate his life to the defence of the aborigines. That his efforts
in their behalf were fully approved by his newly-found brethren in the
Old World, as well as in the New, we may infer from the words of Hallam
who says that "Dominic Soto, always inflexibly on the side of right,
had already sustained by his authority the noble enthusiasm of Las
Casas." So insistently did this great champion of the oppressed keep
before
the Spanish Crown the wrongs of this enslaved people, and so
effectively did he present their right to freedom and the pursuit of
happiness, that in 1515 he was nominated Protector General of the
Indians. Never were the functions of any earthly office more
conscientiously and enthusiastically filled than those of the office of
Protector General of the Indians by its first incumbent. Tirelessly he
combated the boundless greed of the Spanish adventurers who exploited
the untutored savages for their own profit. The powerful interests
arrayed against his benevolent efforts could not force him to abate his
zeal in behalf of his helpless charges one jot or tittle. When the
authorities in America could not, or would not, afford him the
assistance he sought, he personally took appeal directly to the Spanish
Throne. Seven times he crossed the ocean to plead the cause of the
Indians at court. At last he succeeded, though with the help of a
brother Dominican, Garcias de Loaysa, President of the Indian Council,
in having a code of laws drafted "having for its express object," as
Prescott tells us, "the enfranchisement of the oppressed race." "And,"
he adds, "in the wisdom and humanity of its provisions it is easy to
recognize the hand of the Protector of the Indians." Up to the last he
persisted in refusing the sacraments to those who held the natives in
slavery contrary to the provisions of this code. In 1544 he was
consecrated Bishop of Chiapa and with the increased influence which his
episcopal office gave him continued his strenuous defence of the
Indians in the face of the greatest opposition. To him alone it was due
that slavery found no foothold in South America as it did on the
northern continent.
In the words of Sir Arthur Helps, "his was one of those few lives that
are beyond biography, and require a history to be written in order to
illustrate them." His last work was to write a voluminous history of
the West Indies, which is the most reliable authority on the events of
the New World up to the year 1522.

Art

As we have already seen so often, every medium, of whatever kind, that
was capable of giving expression to religious truth was eagerly seized
by the Dominicans to further the ends of their apostolate. Among the
many mediums not necessarily allied with religious propaganda, which
the Order converted to this end, not the least serviceable was
Christian art. Only too often a most effective means of accomplishing
spiritual ruin, in the hands of the Friars Preachers it served the
cause of religion by presenting in concrete form to the unlettered
masses of the Middle Ages the eternal truths of God. It was for this
reason that the Dominican Order created a school of religious art,
influenced art and inspired artists by establishing higher standards,
truer ideals and nobler ends for their genius. To the Dominican mind it
seemed there could be no nobler consecration of art than its
application to the temples of God, themselves already consecrated to
the cause of religion. The motto of the Order is "Truth"; and truth and
beauty are convertible terms. It was but natural, therefore, that in
their tireless diffusion of truth the Friars Preachers should seize
upon the beauty of religious art to give fuller and more tangible
expression to the truths of
salvation. In this manner they became not only the patrons but the
creators of art. "The Dominicans," says Cesare Cantu, "soon had in the
chief towns of Italy magnificent monasteries and superb temples,
veritable wonders of art. Among others may be mentioned: the Church of
Santa Maria Novella, at Florence; Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, at Rome;
St. John and St. Paul, at Venice; St. Nicholas, at Treviso; St.
Dominic, at Naples, at Perugia and at Prato; the splendid tomb of the
founder, at Bologna; the Church of St. Catherine, at Pisa; St.
Eustorgius and Sta. Maria delle Grazie, at Milan; and several others
remarkable for rich simplicity and of which the architects were mostly
monks" (Dominicans).

The greatest glory of the Order in the field of Christian art was, of
course, Giovanni da Fiesole, commonly known as Fra Angelico. He is the
earliest as well as the most famous among the painters of the Dominican
school of which he was the founder. An ideal religious among his
brethren, he was also an immortal among artists. A modern critic has
said of him that painting was his ordinary prayer. Certain it is that
in his painting he but visualized his long and earnest meditations. The
glorious things he beheld with the eye of the spirit in his hours of
prayer he reproduced upon his canvas clothed in the colors of the
rainbow. Indeed, the great Michael Angelo, whose own brother was a
Dominican, said of Fra Angelico's picture of the Annunciation: "No man
could have designed such figures had he not first been to heaven to
see them." We are told that he never took up his brush without first
having recourse to prayer. So intense
was the religous feeling that dominated him when he stood before his
easel that, as the outlines of the crucifixion began to appear upon his
canvas, his eyes were suffused with tears. Nor would he, we are told,
consent to paint Christ and His Blessed Mother in any other posture
than upon his knees. Under such circumstances it is hardly to be
wondered at that his pictures contain a supernatural atmosphere lacking
in the religious paintings of even the greatest artists of the Middle
Ages. He was no slavish imitator of his predecessors. He was, in fact,
a daring innovator who blazed his own path and created his own style.
Under his magic touch the old subjects of religious art were transfused
with the light of heaven and clothed with the gorgeous draperies of his
own colorful imagination. Dante, it may be said, with his "sweet new
style" translated the Summa of St. Thomas into the verse of the
"Divine Comedy," while Fra Angelico visualized the luminous principles
of one who, like himself, was called "angelic," and the sublime imagery
of the master poet, and blended both in one immortal symphony of form
and color. Thus in the glorious trilogy of theology, poetry and art the
Friars Preachers furnished two of its master builders and inspired the
third.

Baccio della Porta, better known in the annals of art as Fra
Bartolomeo, acquired fame as a painter second only to Fra Angelico. His
work was done in that golden age of art, the Italian Renaissance. The
friend and follower of Savonarola, he put on the habit of the Order in
the convent of Prato the morning after the great reformer met his
tragic fate. Soon after his profession he was sent to the convent
at Florence where his best work as a painter of religious subjects was
done. Rosini called him "the star of the Florentine school." Not his
least notable contribution to art was the influence he exercised on the
great Raphael. When the latter, as a young man, came to Florence to
study the works of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci he placed
himself under the instruction of Fra Bartolomeo, as the nearest to them
in his knowledge of coloring. More than one of Raphael's masterpieces
is the fruit of their collaboration.

In the art of glass-painting, as in other departments of art, the
Dominicans founded their own school several of whose members achieved
immortal fame in their cloistral studios. That their work was not done
for earthly fame or glory is witnessed by the fact that so little is
known of their personalities and that their love of prayer was equalled
only by their love of beauty. Indeed, one of these artists, James of
Ulm, a lay-brother of Bologna, has been formally beatified by the
Church. When he died in the closing years of the fifteenth century he
left behind him, firmly established in its efficiency and fame, the
school of glass-painting which he himself had founded. Another member
of the Order, William of Marcillat, who died in 1529, was regarded as
the greatest painter on glass that had ever lived. Thus it came to pass
that while the Dominican Fathers preached with apostolic zeal from the
pulpits of Europe, the humble and all-unknown brothers, reproducing
their own simple meditations in the unfading glory of form and color,
preached no less eloquently from the storied windows of many a chapel,
church and minster of medieval Europe. Long since
the eloquent tongues of these clerical brethren were hushed in the
silence of the grave. But the lessons taught by their humble
auxiliaries in the universal language of mankind are still retold with
undiminished interest from century to century. From the emblazoned
windows of many an ancient edifice in Germany, England, France and
Italy they still tell the glory of Christian virtue and its
incomparable reward.

In architecture no less than in painting the Friars Preachers
established a well-founded claim to a conspicuous place among the
makers of art. In the uprearing of the magnificent churches of the
Order the lay-brothers again outstripped the Fathers in the
magnificence of their achievements. Among the most famous of Dominican
churches that of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence, is best known. Built
in 1278, it was entirely the work of Dominican lay-brothers. None but
members of the Order participated in its construction. Fra Sisto and
Fra Ristoro were its architects and under their able direction this
magnificent temple of Christian art was erected to the honor and glory
of God. So enamored of its chaste beauty was Michael Angelo that he was
wont to call it his "gentle and beautiful bride." Within the walls of
this splendid edifice Cimabue as a boy, studying its glorious frescoes,
received the inspiration which made him one of the immortals of
medieval art. And, as if in poetic justice, it was hither his famous
masterpiece, "The Madonna," eventually came to find its final resting
place. Under the skillful direction of the famous Father Passavanti,
Orgagna and Memmi multiplied their magnificent frescoes till Santa
Maria Novella became a veritable museum of Christian art.

In Germany, France and Spain the Order upreared convents and churches
which were monuments of architecture. Brother Diemar built the
Dominican church at Ratisbon in the last quarter of the thirteenth
century; while at the same time Brother Volmar exercised his genius as
an architect in Alsace and especially at Colmar. To the genius of
Brother Humbert is due the architectural beauty of the church and
convent at Bonn. The Dominican church and convent at Batalha in
Portugal, in the opinion of competent critics, are probably the finest
ever possessed by a religious Order. Nor is England destitute of
witnesses to the skill of Dominican architects. If we may credit
tradition, the concert hall of St. Andrew, in Norwich, was once a
Dominican church planned and executed by members of the Order. The
wonderfully beautiful lantern-topped tower of St. Nicholas at Newcastle
is also credited to the constructive genius of the brethren. The
Dominican Church of the Minerva, the only Gothic church in Rome and one
of the most notable edifices of the Eternal City, was designed by two
Florentine Dominicans. This church, as well as that of the Dominicans
at Bologna, was successfully restored in our own day by Girolamo
Bianchedi, a Dominican lay-brother.

More than one of the famous bridges of Europe is the work of Dominican
engineers. The Rialto of Venice, for instance, was built by Fra
Giacondo of Verona, architect royal to Louis XII of France. Under a
commission from the French King, Louis XIV, the Port Royal of Paris was
built by the Dominican architect, Frère François Romain
of Ghent. The stone bridge across the Aar in Bonn, for centuries the most beautiful in the city, was built by Brother Humbert
who also built the Dominican church and convent of that city.

The Order was not content to consecrate to the cause of Christian art
those of its members who were naturally talented in that way, but
actively and systematically cultivated the love of art and exercised a
profound influence over it to the end that it might reflect the highest
possible ideals of beauty. No greater patron of art existed among the
Dominican brethren than Blessed John Dominic, afterwards Cardinal of
St. Sixtus. He himself was an artist of no small merit, and during his
life at Santa Maria Novella he acquired considerable fame as a
miniaturist. In all the Dominican convents of men and women over which
he exercised any jurisdiction he endeavored to stimulate a love of
painting among their members. This interest in art was, of course, to
be dedicated to the ends of religion, such as illuminating choral books
and missals. The same was true of Savonarola. In every convent in which
he exercised any influence he awakened a lively interest in painting
and modelling according to principles which are now recognized by the
artistic world as essential for the highest expression of beauty. The
lay-brothers were exhorted to develop any talent they might have in
sculpture, painting or architecture. During his incumbency of St.
Mark's he received into the Order some of the foremost artists of
Florence. Within the cloister walls of that famous old convent their
art was passed through the alembic of religion, and thus purified and
supernaturalized, it was consecrated to the service of God. Nor was the
interest of the Friars
Preachers in matters of art confined to their own community. They
freely patronized the greatest painters of their times. Thus it came to
pass that Cimabue's famous Madonna was brought to the Dominican Church
of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, and that Leonardo da Vinci painted
his immortal "Last Supper" on the refectory wall of the Dominican
Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie, at Milan.

We have already noticed at some length Savonarola's influence on the
art of his day. He found it dedicated to paganism, characterized by
sensuality and supported chiefly by the rich profligates of Florence.
Against all this he inveighed with burning eloquence. To their very
faces he denounced the Medici for their encouragement of licentiousness
in art, vividly portrayed its demoralizing influence on the people of
the city, and then expounded the sublime principles, ideals and
purposes of art in the light of religious truth. In the end he
succeeded in purifying and christianizing it and consecrating it to the
cause of religion. Nor did his untimely end terminate his influence in
the realm of art; for in the persons of his artist-converts that
influence lived and served the ends of virtue and religion. Especially
in the person of his Dominican brother, Fra Bartolomeo, the master of
Raphael and the friend of Michael Angelo, it continued to live and
serve the cause of religious truth. It has been truly said of Fra
Bartolomeo that "he influenced all that was best in Venice, Florence
and Rome, expounding in color what Savonarola had taught with the
eloquence of his lips."

In Other Fields of Service

In order to keep the present work within the limits originally set for
it, we can give only a passing notice to many fields of endeavor in
which the Friars Preachers labored for God's honor and glory and the
salvation of souls. As a result of the confidence the Church placed in
the Order she drew heavily upon such of its members as were capable of
filling her highest offices and discharging the duties of her most
important commissions. Consequently, as early as 1250 Matthew of Paris
could say: "The Friars Preachers, impelled by obedience, are the fiscal
agents, the nuncios and even the legates of the Pope."

To the Papacy the Order has given four popes -- Innocent V, Benedict
XI, Pius V and Benedict XIII. Of these Innocent V and Benedict XI have
been solemnly beatified and Pius V canonized. In fact, he was the last
pope to be elevated to the altars of the Church. Eighty-one Dominicans
have been called to the College of Cardinals. Four Dominicans were
Presidents of General Councils, twenty-five Legates a Latere,
eight Apostolic Nuncios and one Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman
Empire. From the ranks of the Order the Church has drawn twenty-three
of its patriarchs, over six hundred archbishops and more than fifteen
hundred bishops. From the days of the founder himself the office of
Master of the Sacred Palace has been filled uninterruptedly by members
of the Order. Upon the institution of the Inquisition Gregory IX turned
over its administration to the Friars Preachers. None guarded more
jealously the rights of the Papacy than the sons of St.
Dominic. Cardinal John Dominic was the intrepid champion of the
legitimate Pope, Gregory XIII, at the end of the Great Schism; and in
his name resigned the Papacy at the Council of Constance. The famous
Dominican Cardinal John Torquemada brilliantly defended the rights of
the Papacy at the Council of Basle. It was the great scriptural
scholar, Cardinal Hugh of St. Cher, whom the Pope sent to Germany to
persuade the Germans to accept William of Holland after the deposition
of Frederick II. From the foundation of the Roman Congregations in the
sixteenth century the titulars of the Commissariat of the Holy Office
and the Secretary of the Index have always been chosen from the members
of the Order. The office of Consultor to the Holy Office ajso belonged
by right to the Dominican Master General.

The influence of the Friars Preachers was not infrequently exercised
in the foundation or reformation of other religious orders or
congregations. St. Raymond of Pennafort was one of the three to whom
the Blessed Virgin appeared and communicated her desire that an order
be founded for the redemption of captives among the Moors. On the feast
of St. Lawrence, 1223, St. Raymond led St. Peter of Nolasco -- the
founder of this order -- to the cathedral at Barcelona, where the
latter, in the presence of the bishop and king, took the usual vows of
religion, to which was added a third -- to devote his life, substance
and liberty to the ransoming of captives. In this manner was the Order
of Mercy called into existence. The constitutions of the new Institute
were drawn up by St. Raymond, who has always been considered its second
founder. Before
Pope Pius IV would confirm the rule of the Barnabites of St. Paul he
ordered that it be submitted for examination and revision to the
Dominican, Leonard de Marini, papal nuncio at the Council of Trent. To
Bernard Geraldi was committed the task of revising the rule of the
Order of Grandmont, to which he was appointed visitator by Honorius IV
in 1282. Again, it was on the recommendation of St. Peter Martyr, the
heroic Dominican inquisitor of Lombardy, that the Order of Servites was
confirmed. At his suggestion they adopted the active rather than the
contemplative life. The Servites number him among their chief
protectors and patron saints. In the revision of the Carmelite rule,
the Dominican Cardinal Hugh of St. Cher, whose monumental labors we
have already noticed, was appointed to be its interpreter. Three
hundred years later, when the Dominicans again took a notable part in
the reformation of the Carmelite rule, St. Theresa could say: "We
observe the rule of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, without any mutilation, as
it was ordained by Cardinal Hugo of Santa Sabina and confirmed by Pope
Innocent IV."

The "imperial spirit of government" which Cardinal Newman attributed to
St. Dominic, was in a measure handed down by the holy patriarch to his
spiritual children. On more than one occasion their services were
sought by civil as well as ecclesiastical bodies for the purpose of
drafting laws, drawing constitutions and, in an advisory capacity, for
administering governments. Speaking of their own form of government,
the Protestant writer Barker says in his work, "The Dominican Order and
Convocation": "The Dominicans had availed themselves
of that possibility (institution development) and the vogue and the
prestige which this compact and admirably organized community enjoyed
in the thirteenth century both with statesmen like de Montfort and
prelates like Langton (father of Magna Charta) would tend to the spread
of its institutions. Here was an approved type -- and it is the law of
human nature that the approved type should be at once imitated. The
majority of the religious orders of the thirteenth century followed
quite closely Dominican legislation, and the Church considered it the
typical rule for new foundations." The same author attributes the
beginning of convocation in the Church in England to the advent of the
Dominicans, with their representative form of government. Simon de
Montfort and Archbishop Stephen Langton, through their friendship for
the Dominicans, became acquainted with the methods of convocation in
the Order and, realizing their advantages, introduced them into the
administration of the diocese of Canterbury. So firm and comprehensive
was St. Thomas' grasp upon the philosophy of legislation that at the
request of the King of Cyprus he wrote a work entitled "Concerning the
King and the Kingdom." At the invitation of the Countess of Flanders he
wrote a treatise entitled "Concerning the Government of Subjects." We
have already seen how the cities of all Lombardy placed their statutes
in the hands of the Dominicans for revision and such changes as they
might deem necessary. At the request of the Florentine government
Savonarola wrote a dissertation on the administration and government of
the city of Florence. Father Justin de Poro was so eminent in his
knowledge of law that
he was consulted by the Argentinians in the drawing up of their
constitutions.

The reader will bear in mind that the names and facts cited in this
third part are in no wise intended to be an exhaustive list of the
activities and accomplishments of the Order of St. Dominic. They have
been selected for notice because they seemed to the writer typical of
the spirit and purpose of the Order. Did the limit we have set for
ourselves permit they might easily be paralleled by innumerable others
equally worthy of mention and praise.

Such in the history of seven hundred years is the Order of Preachers
instituted by the holy patriarch St. Dominic. It was Lacordaire who
said that monks and oaks alike are immortal. And certainly it would
seem that this statement has been verified in the Order of which the
great preacher was himself a most illustrious member. Through schisms
which rent the Church itself in twain it has come down the centuries
practically alone, of all the older orders, untorn and undivided. This
does not mean, however, that it did not share the vicissitudes which
the Church experienced in the political and religious upheavals of
these seven hundred years. The so-called Reformation deprived it of
hundreds of convents while it furnished it with hundreds of martyrs.
The French Revolution utterly destroyed all the provinces in France.
But while they might destroy its outward form and substance in this
country or that, neither heretic nor infidel could touch its deathless
spirit. Crushed to earth, here and there, it was sure to rise and
flourish elsewhere; and ever, from the midst of its own ashes,
phoenix-like, it rose with renewed youth and courage to serve anew the
cause of truth and virtue. It is ancient, as Lacordaire says, but not
antiquated. Today, after seven centuries of persecutions, calumnies,
banishments and every kind of vicissitude, it is still spreading over
the face of the earth and waxes stronger day by day. Its youthful
spirit, its flexibility, its ability to adapt itself to ever-changing
times and customs, its fidelity to its original purposes, bid fair to
perpetuate its saving mission as long as the Church needs its zealous
apostolate to preach Christ, and Him crucified, to the wayward souls of
men.